Tutorial: Easy Play Dress

This tutorial was created for Sewing Mamas by sewingmel, who can be found blogging here.

Items needed:
-your favorite girl’s t-shirt pattern
-knit fabric for bodice
-woven or knit fabric for skirt
-foe or binding for neckline

Step 1:
Adjust your favorite t-shirt pattern. Mine is Ottobre 4/04 #36. If you don’t have this issue, please buy it today! It is so worth it!

A: Draw a line from the underarm seam to the center of your shirt. I drew it slightly sloping down, but you can go straight across if you like. This is the dotted line in the picture below step B.

B: Draw a solid cutting/folding line as far away from the dotted line as you like. I just did a 1" line this time, but I do 2-3" for bigger sizes.

Step 2:
Cut out front, back, and sleeves. This can be done with long sleeves, short sleeves, or no sleeves (you would need foe for the armholes).

Step 3:
Sew up shoulders, and attach sleeves. Pretend that you are sewing up a regular t-shirt for now.

Step 4:
Finish sleeve hems any way you like. I just folded under and used a zig-zag stitch. You could also coverstitch, use a rolled hem, use trim, or use foe. The choice is yours! Be creative!

Step 5:
Pin each arm and underarm together. Sew last seam in shirt.

Step 6:
Decide how long you want to make your skirt. I made mine 16 inches for a 2T/86.

Cut a long rectangle the width of your fabric (if woven) or about double the width of your waist by your desired length.

If you are making a much larger dress, you may need 2 lengths of fabric for the skirt.

Step 7:
Finish your hem any way you like. See step 4. I turned mine under 1/4" and again at 1".

Step 8: Please remember this step! I always forget it!
Mark your four equal parts (front, sides, and back). Your back seam is not finished at this point. I kept in mind that I would use 1/2" seam to take care of the selvage I did not cut off.

Step 9:
Sew 2 gathering lines about 1/4" apart along top edge of fabric. (Pay no attention to the presser foot. The stitches are on the far right.) Gather up skirt.

Step 10:
Match up midpoints of skirt and shirt and pin fabric right sides together. Sew back seam shut.

Step 11:
Sew bodice to skirt.

Step 12:
Finish neckline with foe, binding, or ribbing. I chose foe.

You are finished!

Looks great, thanks Mel!

Happy Sewing!
Kelly

Free Craftsy Class!

Saturday, May 18th, is Craftsy Free Class Day! If you haven’t taken a Craftsy class yet you can sign up today and take a free class from their selection of favorites.

What do you want to learn?
Kelly

This post contains affiliate links.

Quick Tip: How to Sew Flat Felled Seams with your Coverstitch Machine

Today’s quick tip is from Heather, who blogs at Fiberosity. In addition to being a wealth of knowledge when it comes to sergers, Heather creates beautiful modern quilts.

Two pieces of “pattern” right sides up, as they would go together

Fold the piece that will go on top under about 1/4″ – 3/8″ (the green one here):

Lay just barely over the top of the bottom layer, raw edges meeting on the bottom and stitch:

Back side:

You can get the same type of results by stitching right sides together, pressing seam allowances to one side then coverhemming, but this is much faster and the way it’s basically done in the factory….with some modifications.

Thanks so much to Heather for sharing this quick tip with Sewing Mamas!
Happy Sewing!
Kelly

Non-traditional Sewing Tools

Confession:
I love the hardware store. I might even love it as much as I love the fabric store.

This is one of my favorite sewing tools:

Yup. It’s a little razor blade from my workshop toolbox. I suppose it’s more of an un-sewing tool. It is wonderful for slicing out seams. In this case, it’s the seam on the waistband on my husband’s favorite sweatpants. The elastic made that crinkly sound when stretched, where you know it’s no longer going to bounce back.

I really dislike mending and normally I would not take apart three waist seams to replace a drawstring elastic, but when your spouse is starting to workout you want to encourage him, so his favorite sweats must be saved!

What’s your favorite non-sewing sewing tool?

Happy Sewing!
Kelly

Craftsy Sale!

Craftsy is having their Spring Sale! Up to 75% off classes! What do you have on your to-take list? Here are a few of mine:

Magical Jelly Rolls – I’m hoping this will magically turn the jelly rolls on my shelf into something wonderful! (It could happen, right??)

Stupendous Stitching – quilting class

Pattern Drafting from Ready-to-Wear – I’ve tried this on my own with little success, maybe this class would help?

Sew the Perfect Fit – sounds lovely!

The sale starts today (Friday) and goes through Monday, April 8th, with different classes each day, so check to see if the ones you want are on sale today and check back tomorrow for more! I’ll be keeping an eye out, too. :)

What do you want to learn?
Kelly

This post contains affiliate links.

Tutorial: How to Sew Patchy Side Panel Pants

Today we are digging wayyyyy back into the Sewing Mamas forums for this fantastic tutorial to make patchy side panel pants. This tutorial was created by Tara for Sewing Mamas back in 2005.

Supplies:

 
 

• lots of scraps
• a two-piece basic pants pattern
• fabric for the pants pattern and elastic for the waist
• coordinating fabric to line the insides of the side panels

Step 1.

Start with your scrap basket and find scraps that are at least 5″ wide and 3″ tall. All of them should be cut to 5″ wide, but the height can vary if you want the side panels to have different sized patchwork. I cut mine 3″-5″ tall. Then, line them up in the order you’d like them to be, from top to bottom, and serge them together. I do pin mine before serging–I’m a pin freak. You need to make two strips of patchwork; one for each side of the pants.

Here is a photo of some of the scraps before serging:


After serging, from the backside:

Step 2.

Once you have serged all of the scraps together for the side panels, measure them and make sure each side panel is at least as long as the outseam measurement of your pants pattern.

Here is one entire patchy strip, after serging, from the backside:

Step 3.

Take the coordinating fabric and cut two long rectangular pieces to fit each strip of patchwork. Pin and serge around all 4 edges for each side panel.

Here are the strips pinned to the coordinating fabric before serging:



And after serging:

Step 4.

Set aside the patchwork panels, and cut out the pants. I used medium-wale hemp/cotton cord which I coffee-dyed last night. It’s a little darker than the original natural color. Some people take in the width of each of the pieces when they are cutting them, but I like the pants nice and full, so I cut out the pattern without any changes.

Here are my pants pieces, right sides of fabric together:

Step 5.

Take one patchy side panel, one front pants piece, and one back pants piece. Pin one side of the side panel to the outseam of the front pants piece. Pin the other side of the side panel to the outseam of the back pants piece.

Step 6.

Serge along where you have pinned, attaching the side panel to the outseams of the front and back pants pieces.


Repeat with the other side panel piece and the two remaining front and back pants pieces. You will end up with two mirror image pieces of the above photo, and here is what they will look like on the right side:

Step 7.

Right sides together, pin the front and back rises of the pants.


Serge the rise from back to front.

Step 8.

Open up the pants so that you can pin the inseam from ankle to ankle, making sure you match the crotch points exactly.


Serge the inseam from ankle to ankle. Turn right side out, and your pants will look like this:


At this point, I have also serged around the waist and around each ankle hem to finish the fabric and keep it from fraying.

Step 9.

Turn inside out. Turn waist over about 1″ (or enough to accommodate the width of your elastic), pin, and stitch, leaving enough of an opening to feed the elastic (which is shown here with a big safety pin). I’ve also added a size tag and a decorative sun tag.

After you feed the elastic all the way through, overlap the edges of the elastic slightly and stitch to attach them. Then, stitch closed the opening in the waist.
It will look like this:


I’ve also added a decorative leaf tag on the outside of the back of the waist–the colors really matched the side panels:

Step 10.

Now you’re ready to hem the ankles.


All done!

When you’re all done, come share them in our Runway!

Happy Sewing!
Kelly

Tutorial: Satin Stitch Applique

Today’s tutorial was created by Krista, a member of Sewing Mamas!
Here is how I do the satin stitch applique.

What you will need:
-Fabrics of your choice
-Heat N Bond lite
-pencil
-scissors
-stabilizer
-iron
-and sewing machine, of course

First take the piece of fabric you’d like to make the applique out of and iron the Heat n Bond Lite onto the back. I usually lay my piece out and cut around it, then turn it over and iron it on.

Cut out the shapes you want to applique. In this case I am doing 3 pieces (2 for the front of a shirt and one for the back) Here the pencil comes in handy to draw an exact shape on the paper backing, and you can also trace something on the paper part before ironing it to the fabric too…just remember the shape will be reversed when you put it on your item.

Tip: don’t cut out the exact shapes until after you iron on the Heat N Bond Lite, it makes it so much easier to cut it out afterwards and not have to line up exact shapes.

Peel off the paper backing and position it to where you like it. Then iron them on.

Tip: When you have one overlapping the other, sometimes it’s good to cut away the excess so that only the edge overlaps. This is great for when you use lighter fabrics and can see through them and also keeps it so it’s not so bulky.

Next I cut a piece of stabilizer and place it under all of the fabrics (I use a tearaway kind) Pin around the edges to hold it in place.

Now it’s time to sew!
The satin stitch is just the zigzag stitch. You can make it as wide and as long a stitch as you like. (for these I used a stitch width of 2.5 and length of almost 0, I like mine tight together) I know all machines are not the same so play on a scrap and see what you like. I start on the outside edge and put my needle right next to the edge of the applique.

When I stitch on a curve, I go a couple of stitches and, with my needle in the fabric, I lift my presser foot and slightly turn the fabric, then repeat. Tip:for an outside cuve (like I’m doing) stop your needle on the outside when turning…for an inside curve, stop your needle on the inside.

Tip: for straight square type stitches-when you get to a corner you want to go a couple of stitches past the edge and then turn. (sorry the pic is kinda hard to see)

Tip:when working with more than one piece, I always start stitching the one that is underneath if possible. That makes it so the edges get covered by the last one you stitch.

And last I take the pins out and tear away the paper stabilizer.

All done!

Looks simple enough, right? Thanks to Krista for her hard work!

Happy Sewing!
Kelly

Tutorial: Reverse Applique

This sewing tutorial was created for Sewing Mamas by Katie, aka that*darn*kat. Check out her etsy shop, that*darn*kat, for great patterns, including a fabulous pattern for children’s undies!

First, choose your design. For a first try, I recommend a simple shape (the toes on my froggie were a bit tricky, so try something with fewer turns at first, then you can progress to more difficult images). I use google image search when I’m looking for ideas, I search, for example, "frog silhouette" and see what comes up. If you find the perfect image, use that, or you can draw an image inspired by what you find.

Here is my shirt front, contrast fabric, and the froggie I drew (I drew one half, folded the paper and cut it out, so it’s symmetrical). I cut out my image so I can sew around it, but you could put it on tissue paper or the like and sew through it, you’d just have to pick the paper out of the stitches later.

I place the contrast fabric behind my shirt front, making sure there’s plenty of room around the edges, then place the image on top of the shirt front, pinning everything in place. I like to center the image from side to side, but place it more to the top of the shirt.

Here you can see the contrast fabric pinned on behind:

Now, you’ll use a fairly short stitch length to sew around your image. I started at the froggie’s "armpit", stopping with needle down to pivot at any turns:

Here’s another shot, a bit further around the frog. Stop to take out/reposition any pins that are in your way, but be careful not to skew your template from where it started.

Whew! I made it all the way around!

And, after I take out the pins/template:

Here’s what it looks like from the back, you can see the stitching better here:

Now, I use a small, sharp pair of scissors to cut out the image from my shirt front, just inside the stitching line. Since knits do not ravel, I leave the edges unfinished. I like the vintage look the edges get when they roll a bit after being washed.

Start by pulling the layers apart and snipping a little in the middle. You do not want to cut through your contrast fabric, so be careful!

I put my hand behind the contrast fabric while I’m cutting, so I know I’m only cutting the shirt panel (black fabric here):

Now, I’m done trimming out my applique! Stop and admire your work:

On the back, you’ll want to trim away the extra contrast fabric:

Now, sew up your shirt, and wait for the compliments to start rolling in!

Thanks, Katie! Looks great, doesn’t it? I especially love that this is something that can be used for sewing for boys and girls. So often we focus on the cute girly things with the frills and the ruffles, it’s nice to have fun things for boys, too!

Do you have some spring sewing that this would add interest to? Tell me! And I’d love to see it in the Runway!

Happy Sewing!
Kelly

A little bit of sewing

I’ve been working on the forums lately, and making bad faces at my embroidery machine as I tried to get this applique to stitch out nicely.

This one’s still not perfect, but after multiple stitch-outs, I’m calling it good. I’d also like to get it in the mail to my niece while it might still fit her. :)

So, today’s question – turn under and hem the sleeves and bottom or lettuce edge them?

Happy Sewing!
Kelly