Tiered Tshirt Dress tutorial - Sew Easy part 16

You can read the story behind this series and the first part 10 mins skirt here. Click here to read the Tshirt Dress(part 2), butterfly shrug(part 3), Kaftan tunic(part 4), Strawberry Vanilla Dress(part 5) , Reversible Zen Dress(part 6), Carnival Dress(part 7), Java Beans Dress(part 8), Rosita Skirt(part 9), Happy Dress(part 10),  Nordic Prince Tshirt(part 11) , Claire Skirt(part 12) , Hot Chocolate Skirt(part 13) , Nautical Dress(part 14)  and Twirly Jumper(part 15) editions of this series. 

Do you remember this dress I showed many months ago? Well it was part 2 of my firefly crush ( part 1 here) and I really liked it. But my daughter was not really into sleeveless dresses ( or fireflies) at the time and it languished in her dresser for a while. But these days she suddenly decided that she loves dresses, and if its sleeveless, even better. So that's how luck smiled on this dress and it became her current favorite.

One day I was trying to change her outfit and she asked me "Am I going to wear firefly dress?" I said "Sure!" and her face lit up :) And then after she put it on she said in all her 3 year old exuberance..."Mama you made it? Its very good!"

There is also this pair of shorts/bloomers that she insists on wearing everyday, and once she wears them, she insists on pointing to everyone that she is wearing some cool shorts that her Mama made.

I think those are the moments where all this become worth it. Maybe she will grow up one day and still love the clothes I make for her. We will see.

Anyhow, with that kind of customer response, it became imperative that I share a tutorial for this dress with all of you here.

I made another one for my niece ( who will be close to an year old when I will finally meet her for the first time)

Supplies:

1 Sleeveless Tshirt/top ( actually any tshirt will do). I bought mine in organic cotton from Walmart for $3.88, I think.

2. Two coordinated fabric scraps
    Fabric 1 - 3 inch X 40 inches
    Fabric 2 - 6 inches X 40 inches

Approximate time:

1.5 hours

Sewing Margin:

3/8 inch ( although it doesn't really matter much in this style)

Construction:

Cut a strip of 3 inch from fabric 1

Serge along one long edge of this strip.

For this dress, I used the cheater's method of making ruffles. I cranked up the tension to 7 ( my default is 5.2). Set the stitch length to maximum and set the machine speed to maximum. Then I sewed a seam along the longer edge of the strip
You will see that the fabric is getting ruffled as the seam is sewn. Once you are done sewing the seam you can even out the ruffles by hand although the ruffles should be fairly even already with this method.

Leave about two inches hanging and sew this ruffle onto the Tshirt hemline ( wrong wide of ruffled fabric with the right side of the tshirt hem). Make sure you are taking in equal amount of Tshirt hem all around ( pin if needed). Stop about 2 inches before the starting point.

Now sew together the shorter ends of the strips ( right sides together) keep only enough fabric to cover the remaining two inches of Tshirt. Now sew the remaining ruffle on to the Tshirt. Serge the new hemline for better finish.

With the second fabric cut two strips of 3 inches X 40 inches and sew their shorter ends together to get a circular strip. Serge both raw edges.

Ruffle it using the method mentioned above. Spread the ruffles to make this new ruffle equal to the earlier ruffle length( 40 inches). 

Did you also think that the dress needed a little something on the front? Well! Me too.

I just decided on keeping things simple and do the name of my niece on the front. There! Much better! right?
You could use any technique from freezer paper stenciling, appliques to buttons, trims and what not. However, these letters were done using something else, a technique that is pretty new to me. I will tell you all about it but after a short while.
Until later!