A Sally Dress

I finally bought the Sally Dress pattern & made one for Little Imp. The pattern was super easy to follow, but the fabric estimations were far beyond what I ended up needing. That was a good thing in a way as it meant I had enough of some of the gorgeous print I bought years ago to use for the bodice outer & sleeves.

Paired up with a pink fabric with a tiny olive green and dark brown spot and a green fabric with a small leaf design.

 A little bit of whimsy added with these cute wooden buttons on the pockets, bought in a narrow lane way store in Chiang Mai with Little Imp a few years ago.

  

Size 5. Elbow length sleeves. 

Washi Washi Washi. Washi 3 ways.

2015 was the year that I gained confidence in sewing clothes. It started with a few more kiddy clothes, and then a lovely colleague at work gifted me the Washi dress pattern. I realised I can do this, I can make clothes!

Here is Washi 3 ways.
My first take - a short top in rayon. I really struggled with the shirring on my sewing machine. It was hard work. No amount of playing around with the tension of the shirring elastic on the bobbin worked. Frustrating!

After loads of searching I found a way to do shirring on my machine (husqvarna Viking) that didn't require me buying a special presser foot. Thank you kbenco. This blogger gave me the technique of using the bridging zig-zag stitch and presser foot C to sew over the separate pieces of a looped piece of shirring elastic while keeping them slightly separated. Pull to gather and then repeat enough times to get the width of shirring needed.  No shirring elastic in the bobbin, just sew over shirring elastic laid on top of the fabric.  I wish I had found this site sooner - I could have saved a whole lot of frustration!

The next 2 versions were a whole lot easier with the shirring sorted. I adjusted the neckline slightly (a little higher and created a tunic length in lawn and then a dress length one too.

The dress is my favourite just for the fabric.

Lawn again, a bit too sheer not to line, so ended up doing a fully lined  version. Lining finishes at tunic length.

Details on the shirring on my Husqvarna Designer II:

Cut shirring elastic 40" long, fold in half and lay over marked line. Hook loop of elastic onto little section on back of presser foot C, Set stitch to bridge stitch (stitch #31) and sew. Elastic on right side slips into groove under presser foot and the stitch works right & left to catch both pieces of elastic.

           

                     

Once all lines are sewn (I did 4 double rows), pull up and gather from each end until width is about 10"

Tie off each end to secure elastic.

Thanks again kblenco!

More clothes for dolly

After her quiet play time a few months ago, LittleImp had written me a list of what dolly needed:
"Nite Nape" (night time nappy)
and
"Top" (for the day time)
I said if she was dolly's mummy she would need to pay this seamstress to make more clothes. Ten cents apiece was the agreed price and so off this seamstress went to work. For pittance!

The "Nite Nape" was cut from felt, with velcro added top and bottom (on opposite sides):

The daytime top was from some stretch knit scraps. A side plate used as a circle template.

Once the circle was cut out, I folded it in half and snipped out a small circle for the head (the fabric stretches so start small rather than big with the cut out). I then straight stitched from the outer curve up towards the neck line where the black lines are shown in the picture. This created the arm holes and sleeves.

Done

 Because this seamstress is generous (and she was having fun) she added a dress free of charge.
Using the same technique with a larger plate I cut out a big circle, folded in half and made the head hole. Becuase I was using cotton I cut the neck hole a bit bigger (no stretch) and also stitched around it with a zig zag stitch to stop heaps of fraying.
I took a long thin strip of fabric, found the centre and placed this centrally across the back of the dress as shown, attaching it to the dress with zig zag stitch over the section highlighted with the red line below.

Over her head, brought the strip ends around to the front and tied a bow. A very easy circle dress!

 Dolly is still scary.

Angel Wings

I made Little Imp some angel wings. Pity I can't make her behave like one too...
She did enjoy herself running around Kings Park with friends this afternoon while wearing her wings. Almost angelic.

How To:

I traced a paper template from a friend's set of angel wings. You could make any shape though really.

Use this template to cut 2 (one reversed) wing shapes out of some stiffish felt (or thin wadding or interfacing). This will provide a bit of shape for the wings. The fabric I used for the wings was a big offcut of dusty pink upholstery fabric (the white below is the water resistant 'wrong side' of this fabric). Double over the wing fabric, right sides together. Pin so the fabric doesn't shift and then place each piece of felt onto the fabric. Mark the outline of the wing about 3-5mm bigger than the felt itself and then cut out.

Assemble a 'wing sandwich' for each wing: fabric-felt-fabric. The fabric should be facing right side out as you can see below. Pin all the way around to hold the 3 layers together.

Then stitch all the way around the outside of the wing to hold all 3 layers together (with the felt hidden inside). I have a blanket type stitch on my machine that I used to finish the edges at the same time.

 Add some straight line stitching for a bit more stiffness and definition.

Add elastic for attaching to the body.  I used about 24" of elastic. Take each end of the elastic and bring into the centre and stitch to hold (so you end up with 2 loops as seen below).

I should have attached the elastic to the back of one of the wings at this point so that the rectangle stitching you can see on the wings I made was hidden. But I didn't - so the pictures show what I did do.

2 wings pinned together

stitch oval shape around centre of wings to hold them together

Add elastic (as I said above - should do this before stitching wings together),

add elastic (should do this before stitching wings together ideally)

and then also cut a small rectangle of wing fabric and stitch over the elastic where it attaches to the wings to make it look a bit neater.

back of wings

front of wings (with the rectangle stitching visible unfortunately) 

Ashbury Peasant Top and another hairclip

I made one of these for Little Imp a few years ago and she has had so much wear out of it. It is an online pattern Ashbury Peasant Top that is super easy to make - no buttons or zips - and pretty forgiving.

I used a lightweight cotton for the first version & it is perfect for summer (saves the need to go through the battle of applying suncream to arms), or when it is a bit cooler with a layer underneath.

I have used the size 8 bodice sizing for the one I have just made, and the size 6 arms. Probably could have done a size 6 throughout, but too late now! Little Imp likes it, so that is the main thing.

                        

 

Can't have a new dress without a matching hairclip & this is a super easy method.

Cut a strip of fabric about 16" x 2". Turn over short raw edges 1/4" wrong sides together and iron. Then fold in half lengthways and iron, wrong sides together. I then used pinking shears to trim the tiniest amount off the long raw edges to stop fraying. Set machine to the longest straight stitch length and then sew close to the raw edges to form a long tube. Pull up thread to begin to gather. Keep going with the gathering & the fabric strip/tube will start to twist. Once it is all gathered up work with the twist to sort of roll it up into a flower shape. Secure with some hand sewing and add a button in the middle to hide the messy bits. Attach to a clip - hey presto!

A simple dress or top

I’m still a bit wimpy when it comes to attempting sewing clothing, so I kind of forced myself to give this a go. Perhaps then it would have been wiser to start with a project where I had a pattern, but no – I decided to do what all the kids clothing super-sewer-bloggers tell you to do – “just work out a rough pattern from another piece of clothing that fits your child”. Easier said than done. Or maybe my mistake was trying to make the top a size bigger because it ended up maybe 2 sizes bigger!

Overall though, it has worked, and maybe I will have the confidence now to try something a bit more complicated….in the New Year. And either way, Little Imp is pretty happy with this version (and the benefit of my errors is that it will fit her next year too!)

This is what I did.

Worked out a pattern back and front as shown. The dotted line indicates where I cut the lining to.

Cut one front and one back from the main print fabric.

Cut one front and one back from the lining fabric (up to the dotted line shown on the paper pattern)

Cut 2 straps (11”x 2”) each out of main print and lining fabrics.

When cutting out the patterns I used my quilting ruler and rotary cutter to cut all the long straight edges – super easy and faster than scissors.

all the cut pieces of fabric - red for lining & Grinch print for the outer

 Straps: 

For each strap place lining and main fabric right sides together & pin. Sew straight stitch around 3 edges, leaving one short end open (I used a ¼” quilting foot to keep seams super neat).

 Clip corners as shown & then turn right side out through the open end. Poke corners through if needed to make them nice & neat and then take time and iron straps flat, working fabric with your fingers if needed as you iron to get nice neat edges.

Straight stitch around the same 3 edges with a ¼” seam to finish strap.

Lining:

Fold over the bottom raw edge twice, iron and straight stitch using matching thread to finish the bottom of both front and back lining pieces to prevent fraying.

Next, lay front and back lining pieces right sides together and pin down side seams, matching up top corner. Straight stitch together down each side seam with matching thread, starting from the top to make sure that this join is neat and matching.  My machine has a straight stitch that also finishes the edge at the same time - if yours doesn’t then also zigzag the raw edges after straight stitching.

 Outer:

Lay front and back pieces of main print fabric right sides together, pin and then sew side seams using matching thread as you did for the lining.

lining and main sections sewn and finished down both side seams

 Assembly: 

Turn lining right side out. Iron side seams flat, one facing toward the front and one facing toward the back.

 Iron side seams in outer layer flat too – but have these facing opposite directions to the lining seams. This will make it easier to achieve a neat join under the arms.

Slip the lining into the outer main fabric, so that right sides end up facing each other.

Match up & pin raw edges of lining & outer along top of dress, ensuring that the side seam joins match up. If you have ironed the seams facing in opposite directions they should lie nice and flat at the join of the side seams as shown in the photo.

Then stitch the main fabric to the lining around the front of the dress.

Turn the dress right side out and pin the straps in place at the front of the dress. Then, if you can, get your model (an unwilling model in this instance!) to try on the dress so that you can work out how long the straps should be. Mark this and then remove, leaving your model in peace! Turn dress inside out again.

 This picture shows the roughly marked line on the right hand side.

Remove both straps and, using a quilting ruler if you have one, or any ruler if you don't, mark  even, straight lines on both straps.

Then slip the straps in between the lining and the outer fabric, lining up with the strap marks you made before to get the right length, and position so they will line up evenly over the shoulders. Also make sure that the main print side of the strap is facing upwards.

 Pin in place, and then stitch across the back to join main fabric to lining, catching the straps as you go. I didn't trim the straps down as this way I could potentially extend them in time if Little Imp grows!

Then open out the dress, so that you see the right side of the main fabric & the lining. The lining will be on one side & the main fabric to the other. Now you need to understitch the lining to help stop it rolling over to the outside where it can be seen. Slip the lining under the presser foot with the seam allowances facing the lining. Stitch through all these layers (lining and all seam allowance layers) about 2mm from the seam as shown.

When you fold the lining back into the dress you will have a nice neat edge (a bit hard to see the understitching in this picture as I used matching red thread). Iron to get really crisp edges.

You can also top stitch all the way around the top of the dress. Use thread that coordinates with main fabric & then stitch all the way around about 1/4 inch from the edge on the right side of the fabric, catching the lining as you go.  This just finishes the edges nicely.

Hemming

Iron hem over twice (about 1cm for each fold) to enclose the raw edges.

And then straight stitch to secure. I used my 1/4 inch foot to help stop wobbly stitching!

Finishing
Sew buttons (or pom poms) onto the front edge of the straps as shown. These are purely for decoration.

On one of the straps add a press and a matching stud in the corresponding spot on the dress itself. Finally, stitch the other strap down securely. I find that you only really need one strap able to be opened to get the dress on & off.

Hopefully your model will be a bit more willing to wear it now there are no pins in sight!