Whitelilits blog

Pink clutch/envelope bag from ELLE

16:32

Hello there darlings and loved ones.

I haven't written here for so long I forgot what kind of hello I have here. Today I have for you a DYI for a spring dress, you could see on my other blog. This dress is really easy to make and is absolutely pretty and orth to make because everyone will be amazed that you were able to create it. And you will be like Pff .. piece of cake. And yes the post is long but just because I go really into deep and add many points and tip so don't get too scared. Also the actual sewing is like way down bellow.

You will need.

Fabric. At least 2 metres for size 34 person. Maybe a bit more, at least 1 meter for skirt and about 1/2 of meter for the top and also if you have lining and some spare one because you can never lay it out like you want. Some people cut the pattern first and then go to the shop and try to lay it all out if the amount is enough.
Lining fabric. Can be a part of fabric but count with that.
Hidden zipper. About 30-40 centimeter long. It should get from under your shoulder to you hip. Take longer if, you're not sure you can always make it shorter.
Pattern making paper.
Pencil, ruler and scissors.
Thread.

Steps to make before actually sewing the dress:

find the right fabric. Anything flowery, colorfull or springish in any way is good. If you are not sure about the fabric being right it should be a bit thicker but not too hard so that it just falls nicely. Also you can also ask the lady in the shop. Or you can try and on the label they sometimes call it "dress fabric".
find the pattern. Focus on the upper half of the pattern, how it looks like. You should like the look of the dress, also the upper half should be separate from the bottom part and sewed around the bellybutton line. If you don't know where to find the pattern, there are few magazines on the market dedicated to patterns, also most of the shops that sell fabrics also sell patterns or can advise you on a place where you can buy one. Also internet and e-shops are always here.
buy a pattern paper, so that you can copy your pattern out and work with it and put the original away so that you can reuse it. Or any paper could work, but the specialized papers for pattern making are semitransparent so that you could easilly copy it out of the original.

When you have your pattern and fabric at home:

First step is to put the fabric into washing mashine and wash it at least on shortened program. The fabric can stretch and can behave differently after washing and if you wouldn't wash it, after the first wash you might end with a dress that doesn't fit you.
When you have your fabric washed and is drying out, get the pattern and copy it on a pattern paper. Copy just the parts that are for the upper half. Copy every line don't miss any out, you might need all of those lines. Or maybe if there is a special type of skirt and you like it copy that one too and skip the parts where I talk about the skirt pattern.
Add one centimiter on every edge. This will make the sewing allowance. If you are not sure about your sewing capabilities add two, so that you have place for errors. Any way remember how much you added for the next steps and sewing. :)

When you have all that done and the fabric is dry.

Put the fabric on desk or any big enough smooth surface you like and fold the fabric in halfs. This have two purposes, one is spacial reason and two is that you need every piece of that pattern two times.
Pin the pattern on the fabric. Watch out for long lines ended with arrows, those should lay in specific way and you need to measure the distance of the line from either paralel edge of fabric should be the same along the arrow. Also watch out for the pattern to match at least a bit. If you have lines on the fabric they should match around the fabric so be carefull with laying the pattern out.
Cut the pattern out. Don't remove the pins yet, you might need that pattern lines.

Creating the skirt

Now this depends, if you want circle skirt or frilling skirt. There is no real difference, but if your fabric is thicker you may want to go with the circle skirt. Try to do a few frills to see how much fabric you will get there in the end.
For circle skirt: measure the bottom of the top pattern. Don't forget that you cut out two pieces for the top part so check it out how big it is maybe compare it to your waist measurement. In that way you will know if you measured all four parts correctly. The final should be enough to get around your waist and a bit bigger. This is the circumference of the ring, the around measurement, you know what I'm talking about. Now calculate the radius, to that radius add 2 centimeters and create a half of circle. Now measure the length of the skirt you want to get, try measuring it up to your knees or maybe longer / shorter. Don't make it too short, you can allways shorten it in the end. Then add 1centimeter of seam allowance, and 2 centimiters on the bottom for rolled hem and it's done. Gut that pattern, get it on your fabric and pin it and cut it out.
For frilling skirt. Measure the length of your skirt, again don't make it too short you don't want to mess it up and have to throw it away. Create two rectangles with measurement like 1 meter x your length + 2 centimeters to rolled hem. That's it now cut that out and you have your skirt.

Creating the inside of a dress (or lining or whatever) (I will call it lining from now on.)

If your fabric is transparent in any way cut out another four pieces of the top and also the two rectangles from lining.
If you can't see anything through the dress measure around 5 centimeters from the top of both the top piece patterns and cut those pieces out of the fabric.
there is a third method for this and it involves no extra fabric and that's just rolled hem on the top of the dress but I don't fancy that because it looks cheap. We're making haute coutoure here!

Now let's get to sewing itself.

As first thing, you need to get those pattern lines and find darts on them. There are allways these triangular darts. Sew them together and then press them. I allready made a tutorial about sewing darts. They are allways the same to sew, even though they might look differently shaped. The tutorial is here: http://sewing-simpleeasy.blogspot.sk/2013/06/how-to-darts.html
Now sew the shoulders together.
Try it out, check it if the neckline isn't too deep, and maybe pin the sides so that you could see how it will look. If you need any adjustments feel free to do them. But pin it up in advance and try carefully.
Now sew the shoulders on the lining. If you made any adjustments, the lining must be the same don't forget about it.
Now really really carefully sew the neckline of both the dress and the lining together. Baste it together and really slowly and carefully sew it around. Take your time, this is the piece that matters most.
Now frill the pieces of the skirt so that they are as big as the bottom of the up part of dress. You do it this way: Get the biggest narrow sew on your sewing machine and sew two paralel lines about one centimeters apart. Now take thread on both lines (just one of the two threads for each line) and pull it. There will be frills after that and just pull the thread until the top and bottom part are the same length.
For round skirt if the length is the same for top and bottom you don't need to frill it.
Baste the two pieces of skirt to the two pieces of top and sew it together. You should sew in between the lines.
Now sew the zipper on, tutorial is here: http://sewing-simpleeasy.blogspot.sk/2013/06/how-to-hidden-zipper.html
Now if you have lining for the whole dress you need to frill the skirt and sew it together with the top part. Do this after you sewed the zipper, because it will make things easier.
Sew the sides together, on the lining too. Don't forget to baste and try out before sewing.
Now for the holes where sleeves should be attached and if any of you know the word for it just type it bellow in the comments. You need to bend each part of the sleeve hole inside and baste it. And put the bended sleeve holes on top of each other so that the lining will fit with the dress and baste that and sew it together. If you have sleeves, sew the bottom together, then frill it so that the lengths match and sew together.
Then a rolled hem on the skirt (maybe even on sleeves). Tutorial here: http://sewing-simpleeasy.blogspot.sk/2013/06/how-to-rolled-hem.html
And maybe some finishing touches in hands, like if you made the short lining, you stitch the lining to the dress with those tiny almost invisible stitches. If you made the long one, stitch it around the waste. Also stitch the lining on the zipper so that the zipper won't be visible. Also around zipper there is a place where your sewing machine couldn't get.
Press it and vuala, the dress is done and ready to be worn.

Post me your results if you try to do this, you can find me on instagram as whitelilit1 or n twitter as @whitelilit. I wish you luck.

whitelilit