Monday, July 25, 2011

Junebug Dress Sewalong


I decided to take a break from sewing skirts to join Craftiness is not Optional's Junebug Dress Sew Along. Mostly because everytime I do a sew along with her I learn a ton. Yay for free sewing lessons! She even provides a free pattern for this adorable dress. I was going to give it to one of my nieces, but I love it too much so I think I might just hoard it for when we have a girl. One less dress to make later right? I didn't hem it yet because I'll just wait till I have a model to get the right length.

The dress came together really quickly except when I reached the buttonholes. My Bernina has an automactic button hole foot that memorizes the length of a button holes after sewing one of them so that you get the same size button holes everytime. However it wasn't working consistently no matter what I did. After playing with it for over an hour I looked it up on the internet and realized this just happens if the foot is dusty. So note to self dust off your buttonhole foot before using it. After I dusted it it worked like a charm. I'm just glad there wasn"t something seriously wrong with my machine and it was an easy fix.

I love how the dress turned out especially the daisy buttons. Thanks Jessica for being my sewing teacher for the week.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Spool 72 Knockoff



While I was on pinterest I came across this dress from Spool 72 and loved it. I thought the skirt was the cutest part and thought it looked easy enough to knock off. I used New Look pattern 6569 then made a sash that is 2 1/2 inches wide by 96 inches long. I should probably add belt loops, but I'm feeling lazy.



This skirt ended up being a real pain. First it was really hard to find the right color. I eventually found this coral color at Hancocks in the quilting section, but the fabric wasn't very wide so I ended up running out of fabric. Then once the skirt was almost done I realized it was see through and I couldn't get away with just wearing a slip. So I had to go back and add a lining which forced me to go back to the fabric store once again. Then I made the sash too short and then made it too long. I finally got the perfect length for the sash through lots of trial and error. Sewing can get frustrating at times, but the end product is usually worth it in the end. Especially since it saves a lot of money on an outfit that I love. This skirt cost about $15 to make including the lining and the striped tank came from Forever21 for $4.50. The orignial dress cost $57 so I saved myself $37!

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Ruffle Skirt



This skirt is really quick and easy to make. I cut out a piece of pre-ruffled fabric to 44 inches wide by 25.5 inches long. Then I sewed it into a tube, gathered the top, and then sewed the top to a piece of 1.5 inch elastic cut to my waist measurement. Here is a similiar tutorial, but I made it less gathered because I was worried if it was too gathered it would accentuate my thighs which is not my best feature.

I bought the ruffle fabric here. This is the best deal I could find. Most other places I've seen it selling for $17-19 a yard. So go snatch some up because this fabric is great!

I plan on using my scraps to make a pink ruffle tank top for layering. Yay exciting!