Signature Style : Casual Romance

Bella's style, and my favorite style to sew is romantic. But of course, flowing dresses and skirts alone, only make up a small portion of her wardrobe. The rest of the time we have to put a more casual spin on things.

I also managed to check floral shorts and a ruffle front tank top off of Bella's Spring/Summer 2014 sewing list list. 

I used Greenstyle's Baily Tunic pattern for the top. The pattern includes a bib, but I decided not to use it. I also changed the ruffle up a bit and took in the armholes which were a bit droopy. The fabric is Vivacious Pink Solid Cotton Spandex fabric from Girl Charlee. It was my first time ordering from there and I was ecstatic with the results. The shipping was fast and quality was extraordinary. Customer service was incredible as well. I will definitely be ordering from them again.

The shorts were made from a stretch woven fabric in my stash. It was gifted to me a while ago with a few other stretch wovens and some quilting cottons. I used Oliver + S's sketchbook shorts pattern, shortened by about 4 inches. I used a flat front and elastic in the back with a faux fly.

My favorite part is this little bird by the pocket.

I'm always a little sad to see Signature Style Week on Project Run and Play because it means another season is at an end. I can't wait for next season to start, but in the meantime I'll be getting ready for Project Sewn.

Mackinac Island Lounge Wear

I don't think I've ever mentioned that my favorite flower is a lilac, with lilies coming in as a close second, so it was easy to choose a dream Spring Break destination to inspire my week 2 Project Run and Play look. Mackinac Island in Michigan is known for being covered from end to end with lilacs. Every spring they host an annual lilac festival to celebrate the coming of 

spring, and I would love to be able to attend one year.

Keeping with the spirit of  serenity and relaxation that comes to mind when I'm daydreaming about the island, I chose to make lounge wear inspired by the color of lilacs.

The pants were cut out of a thrifted skirt with the perfect flowey drape and silky hand for the project. I used the front and back pants pieces from the Peek  A Boo Patterns Convertible Pants pattern and eliminated all of the bells and whistles except for the back pocket flaps. I added my own pockets to the back as well and finished the pants with french seams.

While I'm daydreaming about vacations I also dream that this girl will one day smile in a picture!

For the top, I used the beachy boatneck pattern once again, sewing it one size larger this time and adding in the basket weave (tutorial here). The texture of the knit fabric feels like running your finger along a rose petal. I wish I had saved some to make myself a matching set.

I'm glad that I chose to sew lounge wear because it filled a void in Ashley's wardrobe. It's been raining all week so she had no trouble getting into the spirit of lounging as you can see from the picture. 

Basket Weave Sleeve Tutorial

Hello again!

Today I'm showing you how I made my basket weave sleeve. I used the Beachy Boatneck pattern by Blank Slate Patterns (affiliate link), but this tutorial will work with any flat insert sleeve pattern you have in your stash. If your skilled with a seam ripper, you could even take apart an existing shirt to add a sleeve insert. You will follow the same steps for either knit or woven fabric, but a bit more patience is required when working with knits to prevent any warping of your fabric.

Step One: Prepare your pattern. Trim 3/4 of an inch off of the long edge of the sleeve pattern piece.

Step Two: Cut your fabric. Instead of cutting on the fold, you will cut two separate pattern pieces for each sleeve.

Step Three: Create your paper guide. Cut a strip of paper 2 inches by the length of the sleeve edge. You will most likely have to tape an extra scrap of paper to the bottom to get your desired length. I recommend paper tape which will tear easier when we remove the paper from the sleeve. Use a quilting square or a ruler to create your grid. You can save some time by making a photo copy for your second guide.

Step Four: Cut and fold your strips. You could make tubes, but that generally leads to warping with knit fabric. Another option is to fold them like bias tape which is what I did. I cut my strips to a one inch width, and then folded the edges so they met in the middle. I then folded them in half lengthwise to hide the raw edges and pressed them closed. I used twelve 8 inch strips to make a size 7. You will also need two extra strips long enough to make a sleeve binding.

Step Five: Create your weave. Use your paper guide to arrange the strips of fabric in a basket weave pattern. Let the strips hang over a little to be sure they get caught in the seam. You can trim them back later. Play around with space between strips. You may prefer a tighter or looser weave. Pin the weave to your paper at each intersection.

Next you will sew it to the paper. Sew slowly along each strip. Stop just before the needle reaches each intersection. Remove the pin and gently guide the fabric under the needle by hand so that neither of the strips get folded over. This is the part that makes this project take so long, but it is necessary so that your weave can keep it's beautiful shape.

Step Six: Attach your weave to the sleeve. With right sides together pin the shirt sleeve to the paper and weave. Sew along the edge with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Repeat with the other half of the sleeve.

Step Seven: Finish the sleeve. Turn both sides of the sleeve to the right side and top stitch close to the edge.

Step Eight: Follow the pattern instructions to insert the sleeve with the paper still attached. Once the sleeve is secured tear away the paper guide. Most of it should come off easily because of the perforations from the needle, but there may be a few areas (such as the double stitching along the edge) where you are left with scraps. Don't force the paper off or you risk pulling up stitches. Instead wait until your top is finished and soak it in warm water. The scraps should pull off more easily.

Once the sleeve is attached you can trim the excess off the ends of the strips. Also check your facing to make sure it doesn't show. If it does you can trim that back as well.

Step Nine: Apply the two remaining folded strips of fabric to your sleeve ends. Use a zigzag stitch and be sure to catch both sizes of the binding. You may want to pin the ends of the weave in place so that they don't shift while you sew them into the binding. Trim the ends and finish the shirt according to the pattern directions.

That's all you get to see for now. I'll reveal the finished shirt with the rest of my Spring Break look next week when I post in on the Project Run and Play sew along.

Have fun with the tutorial. Try different widths and tighter or looser weaves to get a custom look. Happy Sewing!

The Lots of Layers Garden Party Dress Tutorial (Kind Of)

I'm sorry I took so long to get this tutorial to you, but I wanted to be sure that it was perfect.

I want to start by saying that this dress requires a little bit more work than most dresses, but that little bit of extra effort is so worth it for the amazing results you will get in return. Of all of the dresses I have ever made, this is by far the one that I am the most proud of.

Materials:

• One Shoulder bodice Pattern - I used the Peek a Boo Pattern Shop Jasmine Dress
• Woven Lining Fabric - (not shear) I used about a yard for the equivalent of a size 6 ready to wear.
• Main Fabric - My fabric was purchased from www.fashionfabricclub.com but be warned it took 3 weeks to arrive.  I used every inch of a yard and a half for a size 6.
• elastic 1/2 inch elastic
• matching thread
• basic sewing supplies - tape measure, needles, cutting tools, iron

Step 1: Preparing the lining

• Cut the bodice and skirt out of the lining fabric as instructed by the pattern. If you are using the  Jasmine Pattern add one inch extra to the sleeve top. Do not cut out the petal tie. 
• Hem sleeve edges. 
• Sew elastic casing along the neckline. 
• Sew one of the side seams. Do not sew the seam on the side where the neckline is lower. 
• Sew the waistline elastic casing as instructed.
• Do not insert the elastic into the casings yet.
• Hem the bottom of the dress. 

At this point the dress should look like this.

Step 2: Determine the size and ruffle of your main fabric.

• Cut a few test strips of fabric.
• Measure the fabric before ruffling
• Sew a line of basting stitches and then pull your basting thread until you reach the desired level of ruffle
• Measure the strip of fabric afterwords. 
• Finished Ruffled Measurement / Starting Ruffle * 100 = ruffle
• My ruffle was 70% of the original fabric length for a barely ruffled look.
• Decide how wide each ruffle will be. You will need a few wider strips to fill in blank spots.
• My ruffles were 4 inches wide and 5 inches wide.

Step 3: Prepare your First Ruffle

• If you are using the same amount of ruffle as me cut your first ruffle length using the following formula. 
• Hem length * 1.3 + 2 inches
• Narrow Hem the ruffle.
• Sew a row of gathering stitches.
• Distribute the fabric evenly as you gather the ruffle to fit the hem of the dress.
• One inch on each end should remain unruffled and hang over the edge of the dress.
• Once the gathers are distributed turn under the gathered edge at the ruffle stitch and zigzag stitch it under so that it won't be exposed once the ruffle is attached.

This tutorial is meant to get you started on making your ruffle dress. At this point in the process of creating the tutorial my computer crashed and had to be reset to factory settings. I lost all of my pictures (and learned an important lesson about backing up my computer) so I will try my best to explain the rest of the process without photos.

• The rest of the ruffles were prepared and placed one at a time in an slightly asymmetrical pattern. 
• Do not sew over the elastic casing when attaching ruffles. 
• Once all of the ruffles are attached insert elastic into waistline and neckline casing and sew ends in placed.
• Before sewing up the side seam baste the 1 inch over hang of each ruffles out of the way. 
• After the side seam is sewn hem the ends of the overhang ruffles, then overlap with the other end of the same ruffle and hand sew in place to the dress.
• Sew the shoulder seam together.  
• Create a tube of fabric and insert a piece of elastic into it for the shoulder strap. 
• Try the dress on for fitting and pin the shoulder strap in place.
• Sew to dress after fitting
• Hand sew any disobedient ruffles down.

That's it. I really wish I had the pictures to finish this tutorial correctly, but hopefully you can use the information to take this dress and make one with your own unique spin on it!

Let me know if you have any questions and I will answer them as best I can.

Hello Kitty Pants - It's All About the Details

There is nothing like a sewing challenge to get the creativity flowing. My regular readers may recall that I am still looking for the perfect woven fabric pants pattern. So, because I was already feeling a little creative from the Project Run and Play challenge, I decided to experiment with the knit pants pattern (affiliate link)I already owned, to see if I could make it work with woven fabric. I expected to spend an entire night studying the rules for negative ease and wearing ease and blah blah blah...

Yea, that wasn't very much fun, so I skipped it and did what I loved. I sewed. I made a muslin of the pants one size up and discovered that  it fit perfectly with very little adjustment! Talk about getting more from your pattern!

If you would like to try this at home I strongly recommend making a muslin first. Once you have it perfected, the muslin will become your new pattern. I usually make my muslins out of interfacing. It's cheap, easy to trace on, easy to mark, and easy to baste together for fittings. Then when your all done, you can just fold it up and put it in the pattern envelope.

While your working on the muslin, pay careful attention to the waistband. Next to the crotch seam, which feels the most stress, the waistband is the most important part of the pants. If you think about it children don't have many curves, so that one little strip of fabric has to be entirely responsible for holding the entire garment in place. If you don't use the adjustable waistband, make sure to custom fit the band to your child's body. I also used a total of 8 belt loops and made a belt out of some scrap satin for extra support.

For the detail (after all that's what this challenge is all about), I wanted to try my hand at appliqueing. The Hello Kitty face was cut off of a pair of pajama pants that didn't fit anyone in the house.

First, I machine stitched hello kitty to a piece of woven scrap fabric to stabilize the fleece, and then trimmed closely around the edge. I had to hand stitch the applique to the pants because the cuff barely fit around my free arm. The right way to go about it would have been to applique the pants before sewing them together, but I wasn't sure where I wanted it to go until the last second. I also went over the whiskers with stitches to make them stand out just a little bit more.

Since we are talking about details I would love to share some of the unseen details that you can add to just about everything you sew and make you works of art last a little bit longer.

• Tie all of your thread tails together before trimming them.
• Anchor your buttons by sewing a few stitches in the fabric before attaching the button.
• True up all of you woven fabrics before cutting. To do this first pre-wash your fabric then have some one help you pull on it until the grain is straight. You can pull out a single thread to make it easier to see the grain.

This pattern also includes instructions and pattern pieces for matching doll pants. Unfortunately the doll pants require a little more work to get them to fit using woven fabric. I will keep working on it for you and let you know when I have it perfect. In the mean time I will be posting about my knit version of these pants very soon, so keep a look out.

What are your favorite details, seen and unseen, to include in your sewing?

I used the Skinny Jeans Pattern from Peekaboo Patterns to make these pants. The fabric is sueded garbardine. and it feels like silk against your skin. It also has the perfect drape for a pair of dress pants. I love when fabrics look and feel much more expensive then they are!