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!

Nautical dress sewing pattern and tutorial: Sew Easy part 14

You can read the story behind this series and the first part here. Click here to read the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth,  eleventh and twelfth  and thirteenth edition of this series.

I'm back with a new edition of Sew Easy after a looooooooong time. I have written many tutorials in the meantime, but nothing really fit the criteria for Sew Easy. So rather than compromising the basic premise of the series, I just resisted posting. I had the idea of this dress swarming in my mind for a while, finally I buckled down and made it. I liked the way it looks on my toddler.

Here's how you could make one:



Supplies:

Knit fabric ( preferably with horizontal stripes):1yd (I used a tank top to make this dress)
Grosgrain Ribbon: 1 inch wide or even wider
Coordinating grosgrain ribbon: 3/8 inch wide
Coordinating ribbing fabric for neck and armholes ( I actually didn't use ribbing, I just used a regular interlock fabric)

Measurements:

Measure the widest part of child's body: Lets call it W1

W = (W1+ 2 inches)/2

Measure how long you want the dress to be starting from highest point of the shoulder. Lets call it L

Measure the length between the tip of the shoulder to the bottom of the armhole. Lets call it A1
A= A1+1 inch

Construction:

1.Cut two layers of fabric on the fold with length L and width W. I have cut it slightly A line shape. You could cut it either A line or straight. I don't think it matters much at the end. If you're using a Tshirt or Tank top to make this try to measure L upwards from hemline. That way you can use the existing hemline to become dress hemline.

2. Cut out the neckline. I pretty much freehanded it. I wanted a boat neck shape for this dress so you can see it is cut very shallow and wide.

3. Sew the shoulder seams ( Right sides together). Also leave a gap for armholes and sew the sides. I left a gap of 4 inches for armholes.

4. Take the wider grosgrain ribbon and cut it into a V on one end. Fold it towards the wrong side and sew a seam.

5. Start an inch away from front center and sew as close to the ribbon's top edge as possible. Sew the ribbon along the waist of dress all the way up to 2 inch from front center. Cut the remaining ribbon at this point.

6. Cut a V at the other end and fold it onto itself. Sew the remaining 1 inch of this seam, such that you have a space of two inches empty at the front center of the waist. Sew another seam along the bottom of the grosgrain ribbon. This is where the horizontal stripes will come in handy. If you use them as your guiding lines you can be sure that the ribbon is sewn straight.

7. Use a safety pin to thread the narrower ribbon through this 'casing' we made out of wider grosgrain.

8. Pull the ribbon out on the other side and use a bow to tie the belt.

9. For the neck binding, cut a piece from the contrasting knit, about two-third of the neckline length wide and 4 inches long. Sew together the narrower sides ( right sides together)

10. Fold it into half of its width.

11. Stretch and sew along the neck line ( Right sides together). Use pins while sewing to make sure it is stretched evenly.

12. Repeat steps 9 to 11 for the armholes as well. Yep! I realized I didn't care that much for the turquoise ribbon, so I swapped it for the pink zebra print grosgrain. If you didn't use an already hemmed garment, finish the hemline with your preferred method, if you're working with knits, you could also leave it raw, since knits won't fray. However a finished hemline gives more definition to the garment so I would recommend it.

So how's that for a sew easy?

Sew Easy- Part 11 - Nordic Prince TShirt

You can read the story behind this series and the first part here. Click here to read the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh edition, eighth, ninth and tenth of this series.

So H left and interesting comment on my Bottoms Up First post. She says "wonderful! super easy and easy to choose fabric for a boy - oh yes - some of us sewers have boys too you know!! :)". I know, and I also know it is really tough to make things for little guys in our lives. With that in mind I was thinking about some more designs which would work for both girls and boys.
Since my little monkey needed some full sleeved tops for the fall-winter season, I was slicing and dicing some designs in my head and I kept on coming back to the sleeve part again and again. Why does it have to be such a long process, there has to be a better way of doing it. Finally I thought of this design and decided to give it a try.
I like how it turned out, it fits more like a sweater/pullover but it does provide the protection of full-sleeved tee.


I'm calling it Nordic Prince Tee - Just because I can't shake this name off my head. Also, because the front panel looks a bit like tuxedo...like something a prince would wear...going to....ummm...a picnic. No? Lets just say that this is my blog and I get to name things here, so we're calling this "Nordic Prince Tee".

So H, hope you like this one and would make one for your boys.


Supplies:

1. Navy blue knit fabric - 1 yd.
2. Ivory knit - preferably ribbed knit - 10 inches
3. Pleated Lace trim - 30 inches
4. A well fitting tee for measurements


Construction:

Fold the knit fabric in two layers, now fold it in half along the width.
Now lets fold the Tee in half along the width. Now place the tee over the fabric.
Now cut along the silhouette of the Tshirt.There are few things to be kept in mind here:
1. Leave the sewing margins
2. Near armhole just make the curve rounded, instead of abrupt.
3. Leave the cuffs and neckband out of your cut. We will be attaching them separately. ( In the picture you see my sleeves are cut upto the cuffs. That is because I wanted to make the sleeves longer than the existing TShirt.
4. The neck should be cut along the neckline in the back. To be precise, you should cut from where the neckband is sewn on the Tshirt. Because you will be adding a neckband to the Tee as well.

Here're both layers after cutting. Now lets separate them.

Cut one of the layers a little deeper at the neckline. I just eyeballed it, but you can always use the Tshirt front neck to determine the exact depth. Again, use the neckline of the main fabric and not the neckband.
This is where my camera died on me, but I'll try to outline the construction without pics as best as I can ( pics come back again after 3-4 steps )

Preparing the tuxedo at the neck:
Measure how long and wide you want the tuxedo to be. Don't add any sewing margins, the lace we'll be sewing on it will make up for that. Lets call the length TL, and width TW.

• Cut the ivory fabric in a rectangle of  TL X TW.
• Fold it in half along the width and cut a curve on the fold at the bottom.
• This will give you a U shaped piece.
• Now cut two rectangles from the Navy fabric TL X 3 inch.
• Lay these small rectangles one over the other. Sew them in the center of ivory fabric. Sew two parallel lines on both sides of this seam about one inch away from this seam.
• Cut the navy fabric between these seams. This will give the tuxedo the chenille..ish center. Initially they will just look like the Navy blue stripes with some lines sewn on them, but they will curl up a little in the wash and would look like stripes of navy and ivory. Now sew a pleated lace all around the ivory fabric such that right side of lace is together with right side of tuxedo. Turn it out and top-stitch.

The tuxedo patch is ready. Now sew it along the center of front neck. Stitch all along the edges of tuxedo to fix it. The important thing to note here is that we didn't draw a neckline on the tuxedo, so when you will center it over the neck, some part of it will hang out. Just sew along the neckline and cut off the part that is extended beyond the neckline.

Sew a seam joining the shoulders of the Tshirt Front and back, go all the way to the end of the sleeve. Do it on both sides.(along the blue line)

Sew a seam from end of sleeves to the armholes, going all the way to the hem (along the blue line on the side seams). Do it for the other side.


This is the basic skeleton of the Tee. Now you just need to attach neck band and cuffs to it to get a basic full-sleeved Tee.

Attaching the cuffs/wristbands:

Measure the cuffs (lets call it C) and cut a rectangle of Length 4 inches and width 2/3C. So if your cuffs come out to be 6 inches your rectangle width will be
4 inches.

Now fold it in half along the width (right sides together). You will get two tubes.

Now turn half off the tube out. You will get two wristband that you need to attach to the Tee.

Slip this band on the sleeve of the Tee such that raw ends of wristband line-up with the raw ends of sleeve.
Stretch the wristband such that it fits evenly over the sleeve.

Sew a seam, along the raw edge.

Turn out! Done.

Attaching neckband:

Attaching the neck band is pretty much same as attaching the wrist-band. Measure the neckline, cut a strip of 2/3 neckline X 3 inches ( I made the wristbands longer than neckband for this Tee). Sew it into a tube. Fold out half of it. Stretch it to fit the neckline. Use pins to make sure it is stretching evenly along the whole neckline, or it will look wonky. This is one of the very few times when I actually use pins... otherwise I'm quite averse to using pins on kids clothing. Sew a seam along the raw edge. Turn out. Voila!

Hem:

Hem the Tee by turning it in twice.

Put it on the prince in your life...