Go To Dress...Dress #3 Flower Garden

Go To Dress #3

The Garden Dress

 I was hoping to have this dress done last week--but Saturday I spent most of the day at my in-laws house so my hubby could recuperate from a stomach bug.  I don't sew on Sunday and I spent this morning cleaning all the bathrooms, light switches and anything else that might have a germ on it.

Here is what I did differently from the original FOUND HERE:

I cut the dress out of an old t-shirt.  I kept the shoulder seems sewn together.

 Using the existing sleeves I shortened them a little bit and cut the side seam off.

 My little girl has narrow shoulders, to accommodate the neckline I added three pleats.  The outer two are only 1/2 inch deep.  The center pleat is 1 inch deep.

I sewed the sleeves to the body and the side seems of the dress as per the instructions.  There is no waistband on this dress-it is short and I wanted more of a tunic look.
Once the dress was complete it was time to start the embellishments...

 I debated between using blue or green--but I like the green result.

 Here is the dye bath.  I was also dying some other pants and another shirt.  First I dipped the dress in to dye the upper portion.  Then rolled it on to a dowel and let it soak in the bath for almost an hour stirring every few minutes.

Here is the result after washing and drying it too.

  My original plan was to sew green ribbon stems attached to each flower and sew on a very colorful flower garden.  I cut out a lot of different flowers and melted down the edges.

Go To Dress...Dress #2 Anthro Inspired Dress

The free dress pattern can be found at The Train to Crazy.

It is taking me a bit longer this week to get the pictures up of the dresses, hopefully the weather will cooperate a little more too.

Have no fear dress #2 is here...

I'm still debating whether or not to give it a waistband, but I like the flowing look of it.

My inspiration was from this...

found here. 

I will be making a skirt similar to this-maybe for Easter.

Things I did differently for this dress.

 For a ruffled sleeve and a box pleat I added extra width to the sleeve.

 For the box pleat on the sleeve I marked the center of the sleeve (the red pin) and pinned one inch from center.

 Then I flattened the one inch and pinned to the sleeve, this is the back view.

 This is the front view of the sleeve.

 Because I cut the sleeves wide I used piping to finish off the edge-no need for extra stretching.

Here is the finished edge of the sleeve.

Instead of gathering the back and front of the dress I decided to do box pleats. For the middle pleat I measured two inches out from center

The two outside pleats were 2 1/2 inches from the new center.

These outside pleats were only 1 inch deep.

 This is what it should look like before you sew it.

I basted the top edge of the pleats and finished it off with a gray strip of fabric as per the tutorial.

 For the bottom edge I used pre-packaged bias tape sewn together. I used a lot of pins for this part, sewing was a bit prickly.

 When I finished one row of the loops I added another layer. I didn't have enough to go all the way around three times so I went one and a half.  The front of the dress has two loops and the back only has one.

 Isn't it a fun design?

 Front and back view.

 I had yellow piping left over from the sleeves and finished the bottom edge.

 I still debating about the sleeves.  I like the look, but I might shorten them a bit.

 The yellow gives the dress and unexpected flare.

I'm sure a yellow corsage and a yellow headband would pull the dress together.

Go-To Dress...#1 The Annie Dress

Go-To Dress Week

March 22-29

All this week (and a little of next week) I will be showing you different ways to make the Go-To Dress designed by Andrea at The Train-To Crazy, found here.

The entire time I was making this dress I thought of Annie and her curly red hair singing, "Tomorrow, Tomorrow I love ya Tomorrow You're only a day away!"

The only thing this dress needs is a collar--but I didn't like the look of it on this particluar one so it didn't make the cut.

Here is what I did differently from the tutorial (found here)...

 My almost 5 year old is tall-I added a little to the width and shoulders and a few inches to the bottom of the pattern.

 For this dress I cut a shortened sleeve.

Using an old t-shirt I cut three strips.  The ruffle strip was cut on the bottom so I wouldn't have to hem the end of the sleeve.

 For the sleeve I pinned the center of the ruffle and the sleeve to make sure the ruffles were evenly spaced.

 I used to use pins sparingly, but I have learned that it makes projects easier to sew and the end result is usually better.  Sew the ruffle and sleeve together, then serge it--this way you won't have to use pins while you serge.

 This is what the end of the sleeve should look like now.  Nice and hemmed without much work.

Once the ruffle is attached you can follow the regular tutorial remember to keep the right sides toghether.  I had to use the seam ripper on this one because I sewed it in wrong side to right side.

Instead of sewing an elastic to the inside I made a casing for a ribbon/elastic.

 This is the 3 1/2" cut from the old t-shirt.  I serged the edges to give it a crisp edge to iron over (this is not absolutely necessary)

 Sew two button holes fairly close together. Carefully pin the top edge of the casing to the dress.  Make sure that it is straight.

I sewed two parallel seams on the top and two on the bottom. I debated wether or not to sew it in a contrasting red-but kept it to white.

 To finish off the hem of the dress I pulled the material tight while I sewed a narrow short zig-zag. I like how it ruffles similarly to the sleeves.

 For the bow I used red grosgrain ribbon attatched to an elastic.  Once the ribbon was threaded through the dress I sewed the elastic.  The elastic ended up on the left side of the dress, I followed the side seam and stitched through the casing-hopefully I won't have to re-thread the ribbon.

The simple colors of the dress really make it pop.

 My little girl slipped the dress on and and felt around--"It's not itchy" Huge accomplishment for me, she might actually wear it again!

 I thought the sleeves would be shorter, but they are the perfect length.  The ruffles are just right too.

It is a perfect length to run and skip and twirl around in.  All of which she has been doing since she put it on.

Once again if you want to sew this dress the pattern can be found HERE.

The Go-To Dress Week

Starting Tomorrow I am going to have a week of posts dedicated to this dress pattern.

Andrea at The Train to Crazy has given me permission to feature this dress~

The

Go-To Dress

Andrea already has a great tutorial on how to make this dress.  So I will be showing you how to embelish it, add different sleeves, pleating, using different fabrics and so forth.

I hope you will join for the ride

I know my girl is ready for lots of new dresses.

March Madness

Usually I'm not a big college basketball fan.  I'll watch it, but the sheer number of basketball games each season gets to be overwhelming.  This year our neighbors have hooked us into watching, and we love to watch BYU play.  Jimmer Fredette, named player of the year, is really fun to watch.  Even with three or four players gaurding him he seems to just take a step back and sink a three pointer.  BYU got into the NCAA basketball tournament and will be playing tomorrow.  My neighbors want to where team shirts to school to show some school spirit.

My neighbor was over the other day and wanted to see how she could order BYU shirts for her kids, all six of them.  We looked at this site, and realized that the cost would be out of budget, and I knew I had my next project in mind.

Using Microsoft Word we found fonts that we liked.

For the team name we used, Humanst521 BT size 165 for the numbers we used CopprplGoth Bd BT size 550.

She traced the numbers on the freezer paper and I cut them out with an xacto knife.  Teaching her how to use freezer paper stencils was really fun--I think she is hooked now too.

 The pile of letters and numbers

  It was a little time consuming-but the outcome was well worth it. This is the shirt with the freezer paper ironed on ready for paint.

 Carefully paint the edges of the letters and numbers.  We had one shirt that had a glob on it, between the N and G, when we removed the freezer paper.

 This is the toddler shirt, this was done after the other shirts.  I used the letters already cut out and made a box out of more freezer paper.  I was careful not to paint over the outside edge of the box.

The end result.
Instead of spending 60+ dollars for 5 shirts she spent less than $20 for shirts and paint and I provided a toddler shirt.