The Simple Red Dress

I did it... I helped someone sew. Gee. I didn't think I could do it... especially since that person was my sister!
This dress was a nice and easy 5 pieces. Very managable especially since there were really only 3 pattern pieces. My sister did the main parts of the construction... I did the more detailed and harder parts like the hems, darts, and sleeves.

We added in an elastic band in the middle. Here the top is too poofy but you get the point.

 It's still a bit long but it does work. The dogs approved of it. We want to hem it a bit shorter so it can be used in the fall with leggings or tights and boots.

There was a bit of a bulge in the back since I didn't stretch the elastic enough in the beginning.

All in all, it's a pretty darn good dress! And better yet, it will fit both of us!

My First Dress from a Pattern

I finally did it. I seriously HATE patterns. They're so confusing and the directions are SO bad. I was at Jo Ann's last week and saw they were having 5 for $5 sales on patterns. I looked at the patterns that were on sale and they were Simplicity ones. I decided "why not?" I found 5 great patterns that would usually be around $18 each.  

I have plans for most of these. 

  I found some fabric in the sale section and knew it was perfect for this dress!

I did hit a few snags when making this. I measured myself and it looked like I'd be a size 12 pattern size. NO. I'm not. I was totally swimming in the dress. I had to take it in a bunch and it still doesn't fit that well since it's pretty big. And I put the skirt on wrong so I had to totally take it off and re do it. It was supposed to be gathered but the gathering was just not good so I went for pleated. I warn the dress doens't look great in the below pictures and neither do I!

 I put in my first invisible zipper too!

It's a bit wrinkled from being worn all day. I paired it with a navy blue sweater and it looked really good. It does have pockets though which is great!

 The back and bodice normally lay flat but not for the pictures I guess.

The top was quite complicated and pretty big.

So know that this one was a success, I'm ready to conquer the others.... including the knit dress. *shutter* I'll just have to face my fears with sewing with knits! First I have to find some cute knit fabric, though.

Scalloped Edge Skirt Tutorial

I found a tutorial for a Reversable Scalloped Edge Skirt and fell in love. My sister and a friend asked me to make them one and I agreed. The tutorial was pretty confusing. I convinced myself I could do it. And then once I was sitting there with my fabric in hand, I had this "yeah okay I'm winging this" moment. So I decided no reversable- ness. My fabric was pretty thick and my sister didn't want it to even be reversable so I just kind of said whatever. 

The first step is to take your measurements. My sister wrote these down for me so they're very messy. Anyway, Measure around the waist and hips. Then come up with the width that you'd like the skirt to be and the length. 

I ended up adding 5 inches to the waist and hips for gathering, making it wider for seam allowance and gathering, and then making it longer. Make sure you account for a tube for your elastic in the length. My elastic was 1 inch wide so I added on 1 1/2 inches to the length (I added and additional 1/2 inch so there's a bit of room for the elastic to slide through.)

The first step is to make a pattern. This is really just a guess, check, remeasure, scream, scream again, and redo process. Start out by dividing your  hips, waist, and width measures in half. Make sure there's an additional 5 or more inches for gathering.

NOTE: For this part I used half measurements and then folded it over to create a mirror image. You can do this or just use the full measurements and don't fold it over.

The top 1 1/2 inches with triangular ends will be folded over. Go about 3 or so inches down and mark the measure of the hips centered with the measure of the waist and then connect them to create and angle. Measure out you length and width and then with them centered, connect the two at a curve.  Leave extra room on the pattern piece for the scalloped edge.

The scalloped edge part is a guess too. I used the edge of a cup and traced it around. It took me a few tries to get the measurements I wanted.

I ended up with an extra half inch or so on one side. If that happens, just make that scallop a bit bigger to account for it. Don't just leave the extra space there.

 Cut out your pattern and wallah. That wasn't too bad was it? Who am I kidding. This is the hardest part of the entire skirt.

You'll need elastic (I used 1 inch wide) and some fabric. I bought 1 1/2 yards but I barely used any. I have enough left over for probably 2 more skirts. Anyways, if your fabric is thin or see through, you may want to even do a reverseable skirt. You can find a tutorial for that at Bored and Crafty.

 Okay so lay out your fabric, pin the pattern to it, and either trace around it and cut it out or just be spontaneous and cut it out. I like to be spontaneous. And sorry for the dark picture here.

Woo! You've made it this far? Things just get easier. Kind of.

The first part is to get those scallops hemmed. Use a piece of thin fabric. Pin it to the scallops and sew around them like bellow. I sewed on the scallop side so I knew where to go. As you can see they're not too pretty.

I had to use two strips but it doesn't make a difference.

Cut out all the fabric in between the scallops and around the edges. Here I haven't cut out the stuff around the edges. Fold them inside out and iron them flat. Sorry I don't have a picture of that. They may look bad at first but they will look a lot better when it's all done!

That extra fabric on the top? It's time to deal with that. Fold it down and iron it. Ignore the sharpee all over my hands please.

Make sure you fold it over on the same side that the back of the scallops are on. This will be the inside of your skirt.

You should now have a nice tube at the top for your elastic. My machine kept going crazy as you can see where the threads stick up. I really need to get my serger working. Grr.

Pin the right sides together and sew it down but don't sew the top part where the tube is just yet!

See leave it open! You may or may not have to do like 5 different seams. I kept missing one itty bitty little chunk. I don't think the seam will be coming undone any time soon.

A little bulging is fine. That whole curve thing? Yeah that's for the butt. This seam goes right on your butt.

 
Now is when you thread your elastic through.  Measure the elastic snugly around your waist. You can always make it tighter later but not any looser to bigger is better right now. Cut it and then thread it through. I recommend attaching a safety pin to one end and then thread that end through first. It'll make thing 100000000000000000000 times easier. Trust me.

There should be some bunching up occurring in the band because we accounted for this earlier.

 Hold both ends together with the skirt inside out and sew them together. Just go crazy here. Make it secure.

Now with it folded in half sew the hole closed. Yes this will keep the elastic in place.

If the butt is a bit too poofy, don't worry!

Just go back and move the back seam in a bit. I moved mine in a half an inch or so and it was perfect.

See the scallops don't look too bad!

I had my sister get quite dressed up for this as you can tell.

  J
ust kidding.

Woo. I start my new tutoring job tomorrow. I'm pretty excited. Have a good day everyone!

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