Pillowcase dress...

J is for Josie

Okay, so, back to patterns! I hadn't truly followed a pattern yet, usually getting a little lost by the end and improvising and fixing little problems I'd created...So, I found a pattern that truly looked easy to try to stick to til the end. This one looked pretty dorky, but easy is what we were after. I followed it almost all the way - I put the zipper in a little differently than the pattern advised, and I added some ric rac and embroidery. In the end it turned out pretty cute...She loves it, so that's all that matters!

PS: This blog might need to be named 52 Dress Pickup....I've become obsessed with dress making.

Shirt dress before and after...

A gift for my girl.

Forgive me for this week's project being a tad bit on the cheesy side, but this has been on my to-do list for some time. I purchased all the supplies and intended to make it as a Valentine for my girl, but couldn't get it together til now...Once again this blog has helped me turn my day dreams into real things!
J's best (and most imaginary) friend is Leo. She has loved him oh so much for about a year now. She has a tiny figurine that travels just about everywhere we go. She whispers to him and schemes with him. I haven't found a Leo doll so I figured I'd make one. I printed out a picture of him on heavy cardstock and turned him into a stencil. With fabric paint I transferred the image onto white fabric. I added his glasses and other little details with embroidery. Finally, I stuffed him and turned him into a doll with minky backing. He really turned out quite cute. I also found some Little Einsteins fabric on Ebay that I stitched up with some minky to make a matching blankie. When the girl wakes up she'll have a sweet little surprise bundle waiting!

Shirt Dress

So, it looks a little silly with no girl in it, but once again I worked til the stroke of midnight and my peanut is fast asleep. This dress has some major flaws, and I guess you could call it a failure for that reason (ie: I got lazy and used a sharpie instead of a fabric pen - then I messed up my pattern and you can see it through the fabric...ugh), but this blog is not about perfectly polished finished projects....it's about the skills!! And I am so very happy that I now know how to make this dress. I followed the tutorial over at made (I love this blog and I'm so inspired by Dana), where you can find a ton of variations. This time I tried the shirred version with my best friend the elastic thread. I'm excited to make a million more!

Out of the mouth of my babe...

We had just gotten to our hotel room and my girl was ecstatic. You see, hotels are her favorite place to be. She was running around the room naked (preparing to hit the pool) and spoke these sweet words. I am constantly recording the funny, clever, and profound things that come out of her mouth, and this idea for documenting them has been floating in my brain for some time now. I'm happy it's finally broken out!
Super easy steps:
1. I laid out the phrase on my computer, printed it out.
2. I traced the words with a disappearing ink fabric pen onto fabric and embroidered the phrase.
3. I drew the shape I wanted the phrase to be framed in on paper, cut it out and traced it on the fabric.
4. I ironed on Heat 'n Bond Lite onto the back of the fabric, then cut the shape out.
5. I removed the paper from the back of the Heat n Bond and ironed the cut out onto the yellow fabric.
6. I stitched around the entire edge of the shape on my sewing machine.
7. I ironed the whole piece flat, then stretched and stapled it onto an 11x14 painter's canvas.
I like how it turned out, I'd like to keep doing them so that someday I'll have an entire collection to line a hallway or some other space. Love that girl and her funny brain.

Muumuu take 2...

So I said I'd tell you how I made the little muumuu. I found some cute fabric and I was happy to do so, except for the fact that I really feel silly doing a tutorial since I'm such a novice and I don't really know what I'm doing....With that said, here it is!

To make the pattern, I laid out the dress folded vertically and traced a simple outline.

I also pulled the elasticized straps taut and traced them. The pattern pieces are to be cut on the fold.

I pinned the pattern to the fabric, traced with a fabric pen and cut.

I hemmed the top edge of the dress.

This time I made a fabric ruffle instead of lace. I cut 2 strips of fabric that are 1 1/2 times as long as the width of the bottom of the dress (they ended up about 6" x 36")

I folded the long strips of fabric for the bottom ruffle in half lengthwise, then basted them (using the longest straight stitch on my machine) about 1/4" from the cut edge.

I pulled the string to ruche the fabric and create the ruffle. When it was ruched to the width of the dress, I pinned it to the bottom edge of the dress.

Then I sewed a binding stitch over the top of the basted stitch on the ruffle. I turned the ruffle down and pressed it. Next I pinned the two sides of the dress right sides together and sewed down the length of the sides to join them.

This time I decided to line the strap. I cut out four pieces from the strap pattern, 2 of each fabric. Then I pinned them right sides together and sewed along the two long edges.

I turned the fabric right-side-out and pressed the shoulder straps.

I pinned the straps on and attached them with the binding stitch, then pressed the rest of the hem over and stitched along the armhole edge.


Now the dress is totally assembled. Next comes the best part...elasticizing!! I love this part because the dress really comes together as you're sewing the elastic thread in. If you haven't used elastic thread, it's super simple. You just wind it into your bobbin by hand, and thread your machine with regular thread that will show on the top of the fabric. The elastic will be on the underside.

You can probably see the fabric pen still on the dress here. I drew a line to guide me, then I sewed all the way around the front, the strap, the back, and the other strap in a complete circle. I did this complete circle 3 times, I may do more after I try it on J. I wanted to post the simple pattern here as well, but my sweet B is alseep next to my scanner so I'll have to get to that tomorrow. I love making this dress and I think I'll just keep on making them!