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!  :)

Ruched Sleeve Cardigan

Yesterday was a rough day.  I spent the day at the dentist.  Deege (my six year old) needed to have some teeth pulled to make room for his erupting permanent teeth.  It was a bloody mess, and I spent the rest of the day cleaning up his vomit.  The anesthesia didn’t agree with his stomach.  Poor little man.

On our way home from the dentist, I stopped at the post office to pick up the mail.  I was so surprised when I found a package addressed to me from Marilyn from The Artsy Girl Connection.

Here’s what was in my cute little package:

  This sweet little gift was an unexpected surprise, and it totally made my day!!  It was the perfect pick-me-up for my rough day.  Thanks a bunch, Marilyn!!

**********

Remember these department store knock offs?!

One of our readers emailed us some pictures of tops she had seen at a department store and asked if we could show her how to make her own.  Here is the last cardigan and the last tutorial:

Sorry it’s so small.  I don’t know how to make it bigger without making it super blurry.  Moving right along…this cardigan is kinda drapey with ruched sleeves.  It was awesomely easy to make.  This is how I did it.

I started off with a big men’s v neck tee shirt from the clearance rack.  Sorry about the pictures.  I started this after all the kidlets went to bed, and there wasn’t any natural light to work with.

Sweet price, right?!

Cut straight up the center of the tee shirt.

Hem the ribbing on the neck, and along the hem.

I only sewed in about an inch, and let the raw edge on the knit curl in.

Take your sleeve and stitch a basting stitch right up the center of the sleeve to the shoulder seam.  I did it in orange thread so I’d be able to see it better when it was time to remove it.

Pull on your thread to make your sleeve gather.

Stitch it into place with matching thread on the sewing machine.  Remove your basting stitch

I thought the sleeve needed more of a gather and some stretch, so I shirred one seam with elastic thread up each sleeve for more shape. 

Do you know how to shirr?  You need elastic thread (wound by hand without stretching) in your bobbin. 

Thread the bobbin into the machine the way you normally would.

Set your machine on a straight stitch, but lengthen it a bit.

Start sewing and watch your fabric shirr!  Good times!  I just did the one stitch on the shoulder seams and down the sleeve.

b

Much better.  This is what it looks like on the inside:

The cardigan still didn’t have a feminine enough shape, so I took some strips of black knit fabric and stretched them into ties…

…and knotted the ends.  Sorry for the blurry picture.  

I positioned the ties where I wanted them on the outside of the cardigan; flipped it inside out and pinned the ties into place.

I took in the side seams and gave them a more girlish figure.  When I did that, I sewed the ties into place.  Make sense?  No?  Well, then.  I’ll draw it out for you.

Turn your cardigan right side out and admire your handiwork.

Fabulous.  You can wear this cardigan with the ties tied around the front like a belt, or tied in the back.  I liked it best tied in the back with a long sleeved shirt under the cardigan. 

…and a close up of the ruched sleeves…

Oh Hubby.  Sometimes that guy likes to drive me crazy.  He made the bed with the back  of the quilt facing up just to see if I would change it around.  I left it that way, even though it made me cringe every time I saw it.  I wasn’t going to lose this little battle!! It was like sleeping under a bar code.  Ugh.  The Hubsters is a stinker.  And I love him.

Just in case you were wondering, here is what really happened when I was modeling the cardigan:

Oh goodness.  I sure love that little Monkey!  :)

Polo to Cardi Refashion

Remember last week I mentioned that one of our awesome readers emailed us a bunch of pictures of cardigans and vests she had seen at a department store?  She didn’t love the prices and asked if we could help her out.  I’ve got another department store knock-off for you.

Here is a picture of one of the cardigans she emailed us:

Sorry it’s so small.  It’s basically a 1/2 sleeved cardigan with a braided trim around the neck and down the front.  Super cute.  I didn’t have a shirt with that sleeve length, so I just used one I had.  It as actually a polo shirt.

Start off by cutting straight up the shirt, and cut off the collar.

Serge or zig-zag around the raw edges you just cut.

Cut several long one inch strips from a tee shirt, knit fabric, or use a roll of knit ribbing.  That’s what I did.  I sure hope The Queen (my MIL) didn’t want this roll of ribbing back.  I have used tons of it, and I’ve still got more ideas for it.  Can you believe it?!  I took her son AND her roll of ribbing.  Tsk, tsk.

I cut three strips that were about 6 1/2 feet long.

If you use strips from tee shirts or knit fabric, sew them together so they’re about 6 1/2 feet long each.  It depends on what size your shirt is.  It always a good idea to cut/sew everything longer than you think you’ll need.  It is a lot easier to trim something than to miraculously make it longer.

I sewed  the top of my three strips together.  I left my strips under the presser foot of my sewing machine (with the needle down) to hold it into place.  Then I braided.  And braided. And braided.  I ended up with one l-o-n-g braid.

Disregard the toys on the floor and the cartoons on the TV.  I live in a real world, with real boys, real toys, and very real messes.  I sure love it!  Good times.

Sew the end of your braid closed.

Pin the braid to the cardigan up the front, around the neck, and down the other side.  Tuck the braid ends under the hem of the cardigan.

Sew the braid into place 1/8 of an inch from the inside of the braid, then 1/8 of an inch from the outside of the braid so that you have two seams near the outside edges of the braid.

Here’s a close-up of the stitching:

…and there’s my take on the cardigan.  I love how it turned out.

I’ve got one more that I’m working on:

…and I’ll get the tutorial up for that next week.

Now for a bit of randomness.  I got new glasses.  Monkey broke my frames, and I loved them.  They were my fave.  I couldn’t find any that were similar, so I chose these.

Are they okay?  I don’t know how I feel about them yet.  I mostly wear my contacts, but I usually only make it until about 8:00 p.m. before my eyes are begging for mercy.  You know how it is. 

So do they work for me, or not?!  I can’t decide. 

I’ll see you again tomorrow.  Ash isn’t feeling well.  No fun.  Get feeling better, Ash!