I actually did get some sewing in this week, amazingly enough. Of course, that meant that I did not work out much at all because I can’t sew in the evening AND work out.
Non possible!
Here are the fruits of my labor. These dresses are destined for an orphanage in Haiti. The Girl was quite willing to part with them once I explained who and why they were getting these dresses. The Boy asked, “What about the boys?”, and I am going to try to whip up a few pairs of simple boy shorts to put in the box, too.
These dresses were very quick to whip up. There is a downloadable pattern and directions for the bias-trimmed dress that can be found here. Not wanting to waste paper in the printing process (besides being so low on ink in our printer that it would look like chicken scratches), I measured the girl and drew up my own pattern.
The pillowcase dress above was basically my muslin for this dress. I had her try it on to make sure it fit her, and then I was good to go. She chose this dress from Chasing Fireflies as part of her summer wardrobe. It was fairly simple to create this dress, and I rather like the edging on my version better than theirs. I bought lace with a scallop hem on it.
Steps:
- Draw your pattern. This site has a decent tutorial on making a pillowcase dress start to finish.
- Cut out the exterior and interior pieces. For the exterior, I used this fabric, and for the interior it was just a cream nylon lycra knit fabric. Make the interior piece not as wide as the exterior when cutting the sides. It should still match up at the top and armholes, though.
- Sew up the side seams on both, and hem both (I only had to hem the cream).
- Put the exterior piece wrong side to interior piece right side and sew up the armholes and across the top.
- Flip so the exterior piece is on the outside and iron the armholes and across the top (low iron if with a synthetic fabric like these).
- Topstitch the armholes
- Fold the top seams over to allow for the ribbon to go through it. Stitch a channel.
- Thread ribbon through, and you are done!
I made another outfit for the Girl, but I will wait until next week to post that. You know…just in case I decide to work out. 😉
Anya’s dress turned out perfectly. Yes, sewing and working out don’t always go well together. Sometimes something has to give.
That dress for Anya is gorgeous and she obviously loves wearing it! What a great idea to sew for Haiti! Is that fabric one of your designs? Great tropical colours!
I love those dresses… seriously adore. But could I just borrow your little MODEL for awhile please? She’s cute beyond belief!
I like your version of the Fireflies dress better too! I need to get my pillowcase dresses back out and make some summer stuff soon!
Thanks Stacy! The lace at the arm looks like it’s on top of the fabric… is that right, then it’s less itchy?