I know you're thinking that I have gone nuts! Summer in December? Yup! While most of us are only thinking about the shawls, sweaters and coats, there are some places where summer is but just around the corner. This is a jumper and a bloomers set that was a custom order from one such place. The top is made in a lightweight butterfly print. I also appliqued some butterflies to match the print on the bodice.
These are made in size 6T and the client wanted something in light yellow. I took the liberty of pairing it with gray print and apparently my client likes it. Here they're together:
Of Course, Whats a little girl's outfit without a matching hair-bow. Here's the close-up.
Simple and sweet. I like it this way. Hope the little girl likes it as well. I have only recently started taking custom orders and so far I'm really enjoying it. Its a little stressful to prepare something with a deadline, but its also a lot more creative, to make something according to a clients specifications and tastes and to a little girl's liking.
DIY Jewelry
So I got some money as a gift on my birthday a couple of months back and I used it to buy some jewelry making supplies that I had been eyeing for a while.
(I know....such a nerd)
Here's what it became....I just love wearing this cute necklace.
On another totally unrelated note: I have written a mini tutorial for the firefly dress here. I will probably add some more details about the firefly applique later, but if you're impatient like me, you could check it out now.
Here's a new item in my etsy shop. Another take on happy dress. Its a shift dress made with bright and bold stripes. With an option to personalize ( For FREE) with a Denim initial.
Its a soft sweater knit which will be perfect for fall as well as winter. I can see it going well with Boots, inside a jacket, over a full sleeved tee. The possibilities are just endless with this dress.
Do you have a girl in mind who will be happy to have this?
I wanted a design that says fall/autumn to me..but doesn't scream Halloween or Costume in my ear. I don't like the concept of clothing that is just meant to be worn once, particularly handmade. I think this dress fits the bill I had. A little girl could wear it with a crown of leaves and become the harvest princess for trick-n-treat, but more importantly she could wear it throughout the fall with a Tee underneath or a shrug over it.
Elastic in the back and multiple button and buttonholes in the shoulder ties will ensure that the dress grown with her.
The dress is made with finest quality cottons from Moda Fabrics ( Deb Strain's Meadow friends collection).
There's also this cute hairband that comes with it to complete the ensemble.
Does your princess need a dress this fall?
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
How to sew gathered bodice halterneck dress
Hey, here's the big news I have been dying to share with you all. My "Grow and Gather Dress" made it to Moda Bake Shop.
Go here to get the full tutorial. Something tells me that this is the first...but not the last time, I'm featured on Moda....<smiles>
I wanted to send across something handmade for my little niece who lives across the pond. The best part is that she and my daughter are almost the same size so I can make something matchy matchy for the cousins.
I wanted to make something cute but also modern and smart. I finally decided on this jumper and I think it fits the bill. I call it "The Happy Dress" because the colorful stripes really seem to bring cheer. It is made with a thick and soft sweater knit so it just feels right for layering during the cooler months ahead.
Here's a hairband I made to go with it:
Again simple and modern....and I love it...maybe even more than the dress itself.
Know a little girl around you who could use this? Lets see how to make The Happy Dress and headband.
Supplies:
For the dress:
Sweater Knit:
Dark Denim - Few scraps ( Lets say 10 X20 inches, I didn't really measure this)
Co-ordinating knit for the ruffle. - 4-5 inches X width of the fabric.
Two snaps, or buttons for closure on the front.
For the headband:
FOE ( Fold Over Elastic) :
Felt in colors matching with the dress fabric
A co-ordinating button for the center
Measurements:
1. Measure the child from chest to where you want the dress hemline. Keep in mind that we are going for a mod and sleek look, so a little above knee would be better. Add half inch to it. Lets call it L.
2. Measure the child all around the widest part of her body. If she has a toddler belly, measure her around the stomach. If she has a big butt..measure that. Add 2 inches. Lets call it W.
Cutting the fabric
Cut the sweater knit into a rectangle of length L and width W. Fold it in half along the width, right sides together and sew along the length. If you choose a stripey fabric like mine, make sure you match the stripes at the seam. It's not necessary because the seam will be at the back. But properly matched stripes just look more finished. Finish the inseam with a serger or a zig zag stitch.
Preparing the belts
Cut two 5 inch X 10 inches rectangles from denim.
Fold it into half ( right sides together) along the width to get a 2.5X 10 rectangle. Sew the raw seams at the 10 inches long side to make a long tube. Turn out. Iron such that the seam is in the center. This is the back of the shoulder straps.
Preparing the ruffle:
Cut a rectangle of length 4 and width W from the co-ordinating knit.
Attaching ruffle and the shoulder straps.
First position the seam on the main body such that its at the center of the back.
Now pin the shoulder straps 2.5 inches apart in the front. With strap's wrong side ( the side where the seam shows) touching the dress' wrong side. Now lay the knit ruffle fabric on the top, such that knit right side touches straps right side.
Sew along the width, making sure to catch all the layers in the seam. Turn out. top-stitch as close to the
edge as you can.
Now sew another edge parallel to the top-stitching, half inch below the top-stitching. Leave a 2 inch opening. Now using a safety pin. Insert an elastic from the opening between knit ruffle and dress fabric.
Join the ends. Sew the opening shut.
Now lets make a wide bias tape for the hem. Actually since the hem is straight, you don't even need to cut it on bias. Just cut a denim strip 4-5 inches wide on the grain.
Here's how I made my bias tape:
Fold the strip in half along with the width. Iron.Open.
Fold one half up-to the crease onto itself. Iron. If you ironed the first fold well, the crease will still be there after ironing the second fold.
Fold the other half over the second crease. Doing this will ensure that this fold is just a tiny bit wider than the other half. This is required to sew the tape properly. Otherwise it will be difficult to catch it at the wrong side when you top-stitch your bias tape. ( I will explain more later)
Now sew the tape all along the hemline with the raw edge of narrow part of bias tape aligned with raw hem.
Leave a small piece unsewn in the beginning. This will be used to join the ends later.Try to sew it exactly on the crease. This will make it look very finished.
When you get close to the end, leave about an inch or two before the end.
Now measure how much more tape you need to get to the end, add one more inch. Keep that much and cut-off the rest.
Now carefully sew a seam at the extra part of both the ends of the tape, right sides together. You need to measure exactly how much you need, too much and you will have a pleat in your bias tape. Too little, and you will have a pleat in the dress ( at hem :/). You want to avoid both the situations.
Now sew the unsewn part of the tape to the dress, same way as you have done till now.
Now fold the tape over to the other side.
If you have placed the smaller side in the front earlier, you will notice that the tape at the wrong side of hem, goes just over the seam that you did to sew the tape in the right side.
Now come back to the right side of the dress. Make sure your thread is the same color as dress fabric. Now sew a seam as close to the upper side of the tape as possible. Go slow and steady. This seam shows on the right side so you want to sew this as perfect as you can. Ideally, it shouldn't be visible unless somebody inspects it up close.This will happen if you sew this seam in a matching color ( matching with the dress, Not the tape) and very close to the tape ( but NOT ON the tape). Stop occasionally to check that you're indeed catching the bias tape on the wrong side.
Now add some sort of closures on the shoulder straps and back of bodice. Button, Snaps, velcro...anything that suits you would be fine. If you want you could also add more than one closures on the strap to make it adjustable.
Optional - Personalizing the Dress:
Draw a letter on the right side of the denim, in your favorite font. I used a crayon to do this.
Cut out.
I used fabric glue to stick it at the desire position, but you could also hand-baste or use pins ( I'm kind of phobic to pins, especially in children clothing)
Once the applique is stable, set your machine speed on minimum and stitch size to very small. Check that the thread is denim colored and very carefully go over the applique, sewing very carefully along the boundaries.
I used a different color thread to show you the top-stitching and you can see where my sewing ran amok. Thats why I recommend sewing with the matching colored thread, that way, it wouldn't be so obvious.
Apply fray check along the raw edges of the applique.Air dry for a day.
The Happy Dress is good to go. Put it on your little one and see how happy it makes them..And you :)
Happy hairband:
I don't have pics for this but making this is really straightforward.
Cut 3 circles of different sizes from felt. I just folded the felt into a quarter and cut an arc to get sorta circular shape. You could also use household things like mugs, small bowls, coins etc, to get circles of different sizes.
Now cut a 12 inch long piece of FOE and join both the ends by overlapping them a little and sewing together.
Now place the biggest felt piece at the bottom, then place the FOE joint over it and then place second largest circle, smallest circle and the button respectively.
Thread the needle with 2-ply of thread matching the color of the button. Now sew the button by going over opposite holes repeatedly. Just make sure that every time you insert the needle in the hole, make sure you're going through all the layers of felt.
The happy headband is ready.
Blooms And Bugs Studio: Selling dresses in Australia
These babies are on their way to Australia. Yes! all the way to Australia. A super sweet Mama from down under bought two of the dresses from my etsy store
and I added these hair accessories to her order...because...well, who doesn't want to spoil little girls?
Of course! sales from my store make me happy, but what makes me really happy is the fact that somewhere far far away, there's an adorable little girl who is
wearing clothes I made. I think that satisfaction is what makes me get up and work that sewing machine every morning.
What do you look forward to in your day?
I have been alive and kicking, and sewing. But blogging? not so much. There has been a birthday celebration, a festival celebration and some plain simple lounging around and in all that flurry of activity ( and inactivity), blogging took a back-seat. I should have warned you about not posting "Sew-Easy edition" last week. I didn't do it only because I thought, I would be able to slip-in something under the wire at the last moment. Which obviously didn't happen. If my lack of posting and not keeping my word on Sew-Easy series disappointed you, I'm sorry, I really am.
I thought I would become this super-woman and juggle everything at once, but I finally realized that I'm not a super-woman after all. So I just cooked, and laughed around with friends, and listened to the music and watched some movies, and showered little one with kisses and hugs, and oh! did some sewing.
In short I cut myself some slack...wouldn't you do the same...please.
Now that I'm kind of recharged, I'm getting ready to share all that sewing with you and I have some pretty exciting line-up for you. I hope it will more than make-up for my absence. The tutorials and other things ( wink, wink) will start sometime over the weekend. But for now, here's a sneak peek of what to expect...
Shown above is a Military and Lace Dress made with a knit woolen fabric and Georgette and of course, lace, lots of it.
Yes the tutorial is coming soon.
This week lets make an A-line reversible dress. When I thought about doing this tutorial, I was surprised at why didn't this idea came to me earlier. This dress has very simple cutting, and very simple sewing and yet the finished garment looks something that would take a lot of effort. A perfect sew easy.
Not only is this easy to sew, its also very easy to put on the child and take off. And if she spills some sauce on one side just put it on from the other side. No wonder the first name that came to my mind was Zen Dress.
So lets get started.
Supplies:
Two coordinating fabrics half yard each
Two set of closures of some kind ( snaps, Velcro, buttons etc)
For measurement: An A line dress that fits the child.
Cutting:
Lets lay out the fabrics first ( lets call fabric 1 - F1, fabric 2 - F2 )
Fold F1 lengthwise in half.
Fold it again lengthwise in half.
Fold F2 similarly and place it over the F1. Also fold the dress in half lengthwise and place it on fold.
Mark the neck front.
Draw an outline around the dress with some margins at the side seams for seams. I have kept the margins more because I wanted the dress to be wider than the original.
When you reach shoulders just extend the neck and armhole such that it extends 2.5 to 3 inches above shoulders and then round it towards the end.
Cut across all the layers.
Pull out one layer of F1 and one layer of F2. This is the back of the dress.
To cut the front, draw a curve between the points that we had marked earlier, between the front neck and shoulder.
Also draw a line 1 inch above the shoulder as shown in the pic above.
Cut the deeper front neck and the line above the shoulder that we just marked. In the above pic the back pieces are on the left and the front pieces are on the right.
Now take both F1 pieces and place one on top of other right sides together. Similarly take both F2 pieces and place one on top of other right sides together. Make sure both pieces are aligned at the sides.
Sew the side seams. The seams are not visible in the above pic so I have marked the seams with a blue line. Its still a little hard to see though.
Turn F2 inside out.
Slide the whole dress inside F1 such that F1 and F2 right sides are together.
Now sew joining F1 and F2 starting at front of neckline
and continue on shoulder, armholes, back shoulders, neckline etc until you are back at the starting point. Go easy and take your time aligning F1 and F2. This is a very simple dress with just 4-5 seams total, but if you mess up the alignment of the two fabrics, you will be left with a wonky garment where one fabric will be doing a peek-a-boo on the other side.
Cut small notches throughout the seam you have just sewn. Don't forget to snip the corners of squares at the front shoulders. These notches make it easy to turn out curvy seams and help fabric lie smoothly. Just take care of not cutting into the seams while making these notches.
Turn the dress inside out. Use a pencil to turn out all the corners of the dress.
Iron the dress to smooth out any misalignment while turning. Also iron the hemline inside about half inch on both F1 and F2 as shown above. Make sure that the hemlines are exactly equal for F1 and F2 and iron them well so that they don't show on the other side.
Top-stitch the hemline with both F1 and F2 together.
I also recommend top-stitching the neckline ( which here means neckline, shoulder, armholes) though its not necessary.
Add closures on both shoulders. I have used snaps because I had the snap pliers and they take the least amount of time. But you can add velcro or buttons as well.
And Done! Enjoy the dress, Right side..
.
Or Wrong!
Here are the links to more editions of the Sew Easy sewing tutorials.
