Garden Wedding Flower Girl Dresses

Are you still dying to find out what my huge shirring project was?

I had to make about a million and a half of these:

Okay, not really a million and a half, but aren’t they adorable?  They were really easy to make, too.

For this dress, you need:

• 1 yard of fabric
• elastic thread
• ribbon for the sash
• lace for the hem
• 1/4 inch elastic for the top
• a cute little girl to wear the dress.

The one I’ll show you how to make is size 18 months.  You can adjust your measurements if you need it smaller or larger.

Cut two pieces of fabric 18 inches high by 22 1/2 inches long.

Place the two pieces on top of each other with the right sides together.  Cut it at a slight angle so that the dress pieces are now A-line shaped.  The shorter width is the top.

Now, with the right sides together, sew the side seams together.

Serge or zig-zag stitch the raw edges.

Sorry for the picture quality.  The lighting at my sewing table isn’t great. 

Serge or hem around the top and bottom of the dress.  Sew the hem lace to the bottom right side of the dress.

Once the lace is sewn on, turn it over and topstitch it into place.

There.  The hem is done.  Now, for the top, you need to sew a casing fir the 1/4 inch elastic--just like I did with this tiered skirt.

Is the casing done?  We’ll thread the elastic through later.  Now let’s shirr the top of the dress, just like I did with this shirred sundress.  When it’s shirred, be sure you add the elastic to the casing, close the opening, then steam press the shirring to shrink it down.

Dress shirred?  Pressed?  Awesome.  Let’s work on the sleeves now.

For the sleeves, I cut two 6” x 7.5” rectangles and serged around the edges.

Hem the 7.5” sides of the sleeves.

Sew three pleats in both the tops and bottoms of the sleeves.  Need help with pleats?  I used pleats on the flouncy bag.  (you’ll have to scroll down a bit)

The pleats should look like this:

This is what the sleeves should look like now:

Press the pleats flat--unless you want a more puffed sleeve.  If that’s what you want, then skip the pressing.  If you go for the puffed sleeve, this is what it will look like:

I pressed the pleats, and this is how my sleeves turned out:

Backside…

…and front side.

Now we need to attach the sleeves to the dress.

With the dress and sleeves inside out, measure one inch in from the sides of the dress.  Pin the sleeves down and sew into place.

Do the same thing on the other side--with the same one inch measurement.

Turn the dress right side out.

How about we make a sash now?  Oh, do lets!

Measure how long you want the sash and cut the ribbon to the desired length. 

Take the ends and fold them in half.  Make one diagonal snip so that the ends of the sash are forked--like a snake’s tongue.  (Why, yes!  I am the mother of all boys!  Why do you ask?!)

Anyway…once the ribbon looks like a snake’s tongue, you need to heat seal the edges so it won’t fray.  To heat seal the forked edges, just fold it in half again, then hold the raw edges in the heat wave above a flame.

…fold it…

…and seal it.  Perfect.

Now sew the sash to the sides of the dress. 

The tricky part about this was attaching it so that the sash wasn’t too loose or too tight around the waist.  Only sew it to the side seams so that the ribbon won’t have stitching around it.

Make sure it ties nicely in the back and looks good in the front.  If not, pick it out and try again. 

Once the sash is sewn on, that lovely little dress is finished!  :)

Take a step back and admire your handiwork!

I just love that lace edging on the hem.  Actually, I love everything about this dress…especially what it looks like on the little flower girls!

See?  This little gal loves the dress, too! 

…and for funzies, here’s the happy couple:

…not looking at me, of course!

pssssttt…how about that veil and bouquet?  Nice, huh?!  ;)

Shirring Shortcut

Hey!  Go enter the link party and get ready for another one on Saturday!  We’ll do the What I Wore Sunday link party every Saturday, so go spend some quality time with your sewing machine and show us your creations!

*****

I like to shirr.  So does Ash.  Do you?

Look at all of these fun shirred things we’ve made:

Ombre Tee Shirt Ruffle Dress

Ruched Sleeve Cardigan

Tiered Skirt from a Tee Shirt

Shirred Sundress from a Tee Shirt

Ruched Maternity Shirt

Shirred Cotton Skirt

Shirred Maxi Skirt

Babydoll Top Refashion

So, yeah.  Shirring is fun.  You know how you have to wind the bobbin by hand?  That can be kinda time consuming.  Well, I found a shortcut.

Get your elastic thread and put it onto your sewing machine like you’re going to wind your bobbin.  Only don’t thread it.  Wrap the elastic thread around your thumb, then wrap it around the bobbin winder.  S-L-O-W-L-Y wind your bobbin so that you’re not stretching the elastic.

See how fast and easy?  If you have a big shirring project, wind several bobbins before you start.  It saves time later.

I had a big shirring project, and I wound about 10 bobbins for it.  I’ll show you that project later. 

Are you dying to know what it is?

I’ll give you a hint:

It has something to do with this silk flower bouquet I made:

 

(Which was super easy, btw.  All I did was get a little bouquet holder from Hobby Lobby, some silk roses and stephanotises, trim the ends, and poke them into the foam thing in at the top, wrapped the handle in white ribbon, tied a bow…)

Back to the hint:

It also has something to do with this wedding veil I made:

Check back on Thursday to find out what it was!

Oh, and guess what I’m doing tonight?  I’m teaching a class on refashioning to a bunch of ladies at my Church.  We’re having a “Refashion Show.”  I bought as much as I could for $20.00 at the thrift store and gave an article of clothing to several different people to refashion.  I can’t wait to see what they came up with.

I’ll post about that soon, too!  :)

Tulle Flower Girl Dress

Guess what?!

Today is The Hubster’s birthday.

He’s an old man--just turned the big 3-5!!

Yikes!

Happy birthday, Love Muffin!  :)

Smooches!

Aaaaanywayyyy…

 

It’s wedding season.

 

At least, I think it is.

I’ve been doing lots and lots and lots of wedding sewing.

I’ve sewn flower girl dresses for three weddings, and thought I’d share with you one of the dresses.  It’s super cute and super fun.

 

I can’t give credit to the person who came up with this dress, because I have no idea who it is.  I couldn’t find a tutorial for it online anywhere.  All I had to go off was a picture the mother of the bride took at a craft fair.  Sorry!  :)

 

Ready to see this pretty dress?

Isn’t that fun?!

It was pretty easy to make, but sewing on all that tulle was kinda tricky.  It was thin, stretchy, and slippery, but it all worked out!

For this dress, you’ll need:

• 13 yards of tulle--go with the non-stiff/itchy type, and it’s really pretty if you use the shimmery kind.  Oh.  P.S.  This is by-the-yard fabric; not the kind on the spools.
• one nine inch crocheted headband--you could have it match the tulle, but it would be really cute with different color, too.  You could do whatever you wanted in the wedding colors.
• 1/4 inch braided elastic
• a spool of tulle--hey!  That rhymes!!
• whatever else you want to use to decorate the dress, ribbon, flowers, etc…
• a pillowcase, slip, or other fabric for lining

Take the 13 yards of tulle and fold it in half so it is still 13 yards; just doubled up.  Make sense? 

Now, at the very top where the fabric is folded, sew a casing.  Just start an one end and finish at the other.

You need the casing to hold the elastic.  The elastic is very thin, so I just used my presser foot as a guide.  I moved my needle as far left as possible and just kept the fold of the fabric lined up with the right side of my presser foot.

Okay, now that you’ve sewn a 13 yard casing, it’s time to thread the elastic through.  Measure your little gal’s waist, and cut the elastic the same length.

Just pin the elastic to a safety pin and thread it through all that tulle.  Just to be sure I didn’t loose the other end of the elastic, I pinned the other end to my pant leg.

You know.  Just to be safe!  :)

Oh my gosh.  I am in my pajamas.  How embarrassing!

Oh well.  Don’t mind me.  I’m just keepin’ it real!  ;) 

The tulle/bottom of the dress is going to be really, really bunchy, but keep going until you have the elastic threaded all the way through.

Once you’ve reached the end, knot the elastic and clip the ends.

Do you want to know what’s really awesome about all this tulle?!  It won’t fray, AND since there’s so much of it, you don’t need to sew the ends together.  Sweet!  That saves us a few steps!

Now take the headband (with the right side facing out) and put it inside the top of the tulle skirt.  Pin it into place.

Sew it into place.  Do the same thing we did with the casing; move your needle as far left as it will go, and use the right side of the presser foot as a guide.

Sew all the way around the dress.  This part was kind of crazy, since there was so much fabric!!

When it’s all sewn, turn the dress right side out.

This is where we finish with the sewing.  Not too hard, right?!  Finish up the rest of the flower girl dresses, then we’ll decorate them.

These dresses were decorated with 6” strips of glimmer tulle (on a spool) with matching flowers.

We added a strap with the tulle strip by threading it through one of the crocheted holes.

*Note:  You definitely need a slip or other lining with this dress. 

Then we added a tulle waist tie with the ends of the tie going the full length of the dress.  We clipped on a matching flower.

Didn’t it turn out so pretty?!

FYI--the other dresses were done in lime green and hot pink. 

A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E.

 

P.S.  There are so many different ways you can do the straps, sashes, and flowers for this dress.

• you could double up the straps on both sides and make some cute cap sleeves
• you could add more sashes/streamers/puffiness around the waistband of the dress with tulle from the spool.  How cute would that be with different colors?
• skip the flowers and add bows
• add small flowers to the ends of the straps
• tie the straps as a halter top
• use a beaded necklace as a halter top instead of tulle
• use ribbon in the straps and sash instead of tulle
• braid the ribbon and/or tulle for the straps and sash
• weave some ribbon in and out of the crocheted headband
• etc…

The possibilities really are endless.  You could do anything you want, and if you use safety pins, you can change it up each time you wear it.  If you try this let us know how it worked for you and how your little lady wore it.  We’d love to know!  :)