Welcome to the sewing portion of the tutorial! If you have any questions please feel free to email me. I do want to mention that you can use these instructions to make pants and tops and dresses, on a smaller scale of course, for kids...just use clothes that you already have for approximate measurements and go from there :) Here goes!...
1. Fold each pant leg so the right sides are facing one another and sew the inner leg seam. Finish this seam off by going over it again with a zig zag stitch or just use pinking shears...depending on the "frayability" of your fabric.
2. Turn one pant leg right side out and insert this leg into the other leg so the right sides are facing one another...pin this curved seam and sew from front to back and finish seam to prevent fraying....
3. Pull inside leg out and go to ironing board...at waistband iron down 1/2 inch all the way around and then fold this down a further 1 & 1/2 inches to form a channel for the elastic to be insert ed into. Flip your pants so your are looking at the bottom of the legs and iron down 1/2 inch and then fold down and iron down another 1/2 inch...this is your hem...
4. Sew 1/8 inch from the edge of the waistband starting at the back center (crotch seam) and leaving a 1 &1/2 inch gap that you don't sew so that you can insert your elastic. Sew 1/8 inch from the folded edge of the hems on the pant legs.
5. Measure your elastic...to a comfortable stretch around the waist and add 2 inches
6. Put a safety pin through one end of the elastic and thread it through the waistband channel...being careful not to lose the other end into the channel..and also being careful that it doesn't get twisted....when it is all the way through overlap the ends about an inch and sew together down one side and then the other to make it very secure...let it go back up into the channel and then sew down the opening that you left....voila!!! pj pants
7.Now for the top...sew the side seams together and finish by zigzagging, pinking or serging
8. Hem the top and the bottom the same way you did the hem on the pants...fold and iron down 1/2 inch and then another 1/2 inch and sew this 1/8 inch away from the folded edge.
9. Now, take your sleeve rectangles and iron down both of the long sides 1/4 inch and then 1/4 inch again to create a narrow hem...stitch these edges down very close to the folded edge.
10. Wind your bobbin by hand with elastic thread...use regular thread for your top thread
11. Set your stitch setting to the longest, basting stitch you can and sew one or two times down the long sides of the rectangles, making sure to backstitch back and forth a couple of times at the beginning and end to ensure the threads are secure...your sleeves will look like this:
12. Lay the body of your top so that the two side seams are at the sides and then fold in half again so the center front and back are to the right...lay this flat and then find the center of this and mark with a pin...measure about one inch closer to the center fold and mark this with a pin...mark all four layers with a pin at this point...this is where you will center your sleeves:
13. Open the top body up with the side seams at the sides and pin your gathered sleeves from front to the back centering each strap where the marking pins are, like this:
14. Now, for the final step, starting at one side seam, and making sure to backstitch securely, sew around and around your top using the elastic thread in the bobbin and the sewing machine on the basting stitch until you are satisfied with the amount of shirring...i shirred 5 times around so the gathering would fall above the breast line but you can do as much as you like... each time you go around,when you get to the side seam that you started on just take the needle out of the fabric, lift the presser foot , move the top over about 1/2 inch, use your presser foot edge as your guide ,presser foot down again, needle down, and off you go....
just make sure to check the amount of elastic thread in your bobbin as you wouldn't want to run out mid go-round...make sure you securely backstitch whenever you have to reload the bobbin and at the beginning and the end...and there you have it!
playing in the rain
This is a little dress that I actually made during the winter...used a no longer worn cashmere sweater...LOVE to repurpose beautiful things! This is the back view...I added a little gusset in the back so the dress wouldn't be so "tubey"
Last week my plan was to make pajamas and nightgowns...I made my mom hers,the shirred top and capris and then I decided to make Mia and Lily some nightgowns...I wanted to use Amanda from Kitschycoo's shirred sundress instructions but I didn't want the straps to tie ,for safety reasons...so I made the straps in two different ways...first I just attached the strap from the front to the back...I came up with the length for the straps by measuring from collarbone in front to the top of the shoulderblade in back...for Mia the measurement was 13 inches and 7 inches for Lily.
Lily LOVES this teddy bear fabric and is insisting on wearing it during the day :)
The only problem with this nightie is that it looks so cute that I can't resist using it as a dress...and so Lily still has no nightgowns....it's such a very lovely gauzy cotton...so I decided to make it into a hat to match...
sorry for the crappy photos..I especially like the drainage tube in the background here...
3. Pull inside leg out and go to ironing board...at waistband iron down 1/2 inch all the way around and then fold this down a further 1 & 1/2 inches to form a channel for the elastic to be insert ed into. Flip your pants so your are looking at the bottom of the legs and iron down 1/2 inch and then fold down and iron down another 1/2 inch...this is your hem...
Iris from Not Perfect But Nice! You are so sweet to think of me :) So, now I have to list seven things that I love....
3. Fold your pj pants as shown with the outside edge of the pant on the folded edge of your fabric...if you need your new pants to be a little larger as I did, just move the pants a little bit away from the folded fabric edge...i moved mine about 4 inches in.
5. Using this piece as your pattern cut another one out exactly like it making sure to position it on the folded edge...these are your 2 pj pant pieces.
7. For the body of the shirred pj top take the chest measurement around...bra size plus a couple of inches.... and add to it 1/2 of that measurement. For example: I used 36 inches and added 18 inches to that to get 54 inches.This means that before shirring, the top will be approx 54 inches around(it will get significantly smaller when shirred - don't panic) Then, measure to determine your desired length ....add 2 inches to this length for hemming the top and bottom....I wanted mine to be 23 inches long so I added 2 inches to get 25 inches. So, using these calculations I needed a 54 inch wide by 25 inch long piece of fabric for my top. Since my fabric was only 45 inches wide I had to cut out two 27 inch wide by 25 inch long panels which when sewn together to form a tube will be just a little under 54 inches wide (taking a 1/4 inch seam allowance into account) and 25 inches long. Mine looked like this:
So there you go...all cut out! I'll post the sewing instructions very soon...like how I'm being noncommittal? Baby bird is not sleeping very well lately so I'm not getting my sewing/blogging time without a struggle...sigh...I'll post it just as soon as I can :)
Violets are everywhere this year...
and the most beautiful flower in the garden
