J.Crew Look-A-Like T-Shirt

There are so many embellished t-shirt tutorials out there and this one is so easy I almost didn't post it...but I love the way it turned out (in only 5 easy steps!)

I copied this J.Crew t-shirt:

1) Get an extra long t-shirt (mine is from H&M and cost $5).  Decide where you actually want it to hit and cut off the bottom (leaving an extra 3/4-1" for the hem).

2) Hem the bottom (I folded twice but once I did it I realized I really only needed to do it once since the jersey won't fray).

3) Cut the bottom piece into 3 strips of the same length (more or less) and decreasing in width about 1/4" for each one. You'll want to cut off the old hem as well.

4) Ruffle the strips and gather them to approximately 9" long.

5) Stack the ruffles and pin and sew to the shirt in the same position as the J-Crew one.  I highly recommend trying it on while pinned to make sure you like the placement.

Now just press and you're done!

Boat Top

It's been quite a while since I've posted, but that's only because I've been working on presents that can't be seen yet!  One of them is this dress that I made for my brother's girlfriend.  The fabric is from Spool and is really soft.  I love how it turned out, although I'll need to make some adjustments for it to fit her.

But back to the main reason for this post: I decided one night after work that I'd like to make another top from scratch, now that I'm a bit more familiar with shapes and darts.  I'm also getting ready to make the coffee date dress and wanted to try out an all in one lining.  I used a shirt from H&M to get an idea of the pattern and just cut around it.

I wasn't really sure how to figure out where the darts should go, so I just approximated how far down from the armhole they should be, and how far in they should go (next time I'll have them go a little further in). 

Then I sewed one side together (with French seams), cut out the facing pieces and sewed them together at one side.  Next, following these instructions from Grosgrain's Frock by Friday Sew Along, I sewed the facing to the shirt, right sides together, everywhere except the top of the arms.  Then I understiched where possible (sewed the seam allowance to the facing), and notched the curves.

Next came the fun part of figuring out how to sew the arms together at the top.  I really have no idea how to explain it.  I just followed Grosgrain's instructions, thinking the whole time that there was no way this could work, but magically it did!  I'm so excited about this new technique--its not really complicated, you just need to do it once to understand how it works.

I finished the shirt with a French seam on the other side.  I realized after making the darts that I had cut both front and back pieces the same length, but with the darts the front was significantly shorter.  I didn't want to waste any material in the hem as it was already just the right length, so I used this great tutorial from Adventures in Dressmaking to add a hem facing.

I love my crazy geometric boat shirt!

Marc Jacobs-inspired Rosette Jersey Skirt

 

I love this skirt!  It was really simple to make: the only time-consuming part was making the flowers and even that was made easier by the fact that everything is jersey, so you don't have to finish anything!  I used a heavy weight jersey for the skirt itself since I wanted it to be warm enough to wear this winter, and a light jersey for the flowers, so they were easy to sew.  The only real problem I ran in to had to do with the shape of the skirt, and that was easily fixed.

I started by cutting 3 rectangles: 1 for the body and 2 for the top and bottom.  Here was where I messed up: I didn't think about the fact that I didn't want the skirt to be the same width at the waist as as the bottom.  As you can see in the actual picture it's more of an A-line, although a slight one.

To fix my mistake I ended up adding a triangular panel in the back that added about 6" to the bottom hem, but kept the top the same width.  Here's what it looked like when I was getting ready to attach it to the rectangular panel:

This problem could have been avoided if I'd stopped to think and either a) cut a large rectangle as wide as the bottom needed to be or b) cut a trapezoid.  But this worked just fine and you don't really notice the back panel.

Here were the final measurements for my 3 main pieces:
Body panel: 36"x15" plus triangle 6"x15"
Top piece: 36"x5"
Bottom piece: 42"x5"

Next it was time to ruffle and pin and sew and ruffle and pin and sew...35 flowers total!!!  I cut the strips 24" long and about 1/2"-3/4" wide.  I didn't worry about them all being exactly the same thickness or exactly the same length once ruffled.  Once the strips were ruffled I pinned them to the skirt, using as many pins as possible to keep them in place while I sewed them on.

 

This part was definitely slow going.  I would recommend putting the rosettes as close together as possible...touching or almost overlapping.  I left a small space between each of mine and when the skirt is on it stretches and they're further apart.

Once all of the rosettes has been sewed on came the easy final steps: attaching the bottom and top.  I couldn't tell on the original but I thought that they looked thicker so I decided to fold the fabric in half and have strips of about 2 inches (although after trying them on once pinning I preferred a slightly smaller piece on the bottom, about 1.5").  This also had the added advantage of not having to do any hems!  I just folded the long piece in half lengthwise (wrong sides together) laid them on the body of the skirt (right sides together) sewed together with a stretch stitch and trimmed off any extra!  Finally I folded the skirt in half (right sides together) and stitched up the last hem--I just used a straight stitch for this since the skirt won't be stretching lengthwise.

A word about working with stretch fabrics: think long and hard before you cut about which way the skirt will be stretching.  Twice I cut too soon only to realize that the fabric was stretching lengthwise, not along the width as I wanted it to.  I'm sure this is something you get the hang of the more you work with fabrics like jersey but I'm not quite there yet.

I can't wait for the "warm" weather this week (45 degrees!) to wear my new skirt!

 

Update: After pressing the hems I realized that the waist of this skirt is way too big.  The flowers make the skirt fairly heavy so you need a pretty tight waist (using the jersey's natural stretch) to hold it up well.  I'll do some re-hemming of the back hem or maybe some darts tonight to fix it.

Up next: Joann's just had a huge sale and I got a bunch of patters and fabrics--more spring/summer appropriate but it'll get warmer soon, right?  I also have another shirt makeover in the works that should be up soon.

Snow Day Sweater Dress Makeover

 

The record-setting snow storm that hit the mid-Atlantic this week gave me 2 snow days (!!!) and plenty of time to work on my newest project--except for the 3 hours we lost power Wednesday afternoon.  The snow was absolutely beautiful but after the 15 inches we had last weekend I wasn't even tempted to go out and play.

I've had this gray sweater dress from Express for about 3-4 years now and it's always bothered me to wear it.  I always get compliments when I do but its so overwhelmingly gray and the long sleeves annoy me, plus its kind of itchy.  I decided to spruce it up and change the neckline, since boat collars don't really work for me.

 

I based the idea for the new shape of the dress on this Butterick pattern (that I own but haven't made yet).  I obviously really like this purple broadcloth fabric (since I've used it in the past 3 of 4 projects) and I like the purple-gray combination.  To give the dress a little more flair I decided to use the belt as a ruffle that would just peek out of the side of the purple strips.

I started off by shortening the sleeves to 3/4 length.  I simply measured how long I wanted them to be, cut, and reattached the original cuff.  In order to get the sleeve to fit in the cuff I had to baste it and gather it a bit.

 

Next I prepared the purple strips and the ruffles.  I decided that I wanted the waist band to be about 3" wide (I checked other dresses I own with waistbands), and knew that I would want the 2 strips that make up the collar to form a strip the same width when they joined in the middle.  Therefore the collar strip would be 1.5", joining at the bottom of the v-neck to form a 3" strip.  I marked the design on my dress with chalk, which may give you a better idea of this.

For the waist I cut a strip 4" by 33", and did a double fold hem of about 1/2" on each side.  For the collar I cut a strip 2.5" by 44" and only folded over once (since it was going to be completely attached to the shirt anyway).  Now may be a good time to say that once I was partway through this project I realized that my dress was very stretchy, while the broadcloth was not.  I knew this would cause problems if I attached the waistband all the way around, as I probably wouldn't be able to get the dress over my head and shoulders.  So I decided to leave the waistband unattached in the back, and I'll show you the rest of my solution a bit later on.

After cutting the purple strips I was ready to prepare the gray ruffles.  I cut the belt in half (it ended up being 1" by 67").  I decided to use 1.5 times the length of the purple strips for the ruffles, so I used 1 strip for the collar, 3/4 of one for the top of the waistband, and the rest plus some extra strips I cut from the leftover sleeve material for the bottom of the waistband.  I then made a ruffle with each long strip, gathering them enough so that they were the same length as the purple strips.

Next came the pinning...and repinning...and more pinning.  And between each step trying on the dress and getting hundreds of tiny stabs and scratches.  My arms look like I was mauled by a very weak and dull-clawed kitten.  But I finally got both sides of the collar pinned correctly and I sewed very close to the edge, slightly overlapping the 2 strips in the middle. 

The final step was to add the waistband.  As I said earlier I realized that I would never be able to get the dress on if I attached it all the way around, so I decided to leave it unattached on the back.  In order to do this I first pinned the front and 2 inches around the back.

Then I hemmed the top and bottom of the waistband that were not attached to the dress, going right up to where it would join the dress but being careful not to go too far.  I left the ends unhemmed since I knew I would have to remeasure and do them last, once everything else was in place.  Next I sewed the waistband top and bottom to the dress and tried it on.  Luckily I'd left enough room in the back and was able to get it on!  With the help of my boyfriend (who marked where the 2 ends should meet) I was able to finish the back, hemming the edges and adding 3 hooks and eyes so that once the dress is on the belt can be "buckled" in place.

This is what the back looks like when the dress is on.  By looking at it when its off you can see just how much the dress stretches!

I'm really happy with the way this dress turned out and it was definitely a great way to spend my snow days!  You may not be able to tell but the waistband and vertical strip only ended up being about 2 1/4 inches wide, instead of the 3 I was going for.  I must have used more fabric than I meant to when hemming.  And even though this didn't really help the itchiness problem I'm sure I'll wear it more than I did before!

Another Nightie

I love my dragonfly nightie so much I decided to make another one, this time using an old t-shirt and black jersey material and following the same tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew!  The pink t-shirt (a Yuengling shirt that my boyfriend got for free at a bar) was so big that I was able to make the nightie even longer, and this one is 27 inches long.  It's hard to see the straps but I used a thin white ribbon (thus avoiding what I thought was the hardest part of the last one).  I used the t-shirt inside out and kept the original hem so I covered the hem stitching with the same ribbon.

 Coming tomorrow: a sweater dress makeover tutorial!

Cute and Quick Nightie

 

I whipped up this super cute nightie in about an hour tonight will watching (listening) to the Super Bowl.  Check out Sew, Mama, Sew! for the tutorial.  The only thing I changed was the length...mine is about 24" long (including the purple band).  I've had this cute dragonfly cotton fabric for a while but hadn't found the right project for it--this was perfect!

Flower Top Tutorial

The inspiration for this top came from this beautiful shirt that Alexis of MadeByLex posted this summer.  I've been wanting to make a version all year and finally felt ready and found some great organic cotton on sale at Joann's that seemed like it would work well--light but still sturdy enough to make the flower.  And with it looking like this outside what better time to make a spring/summer shirt?!

 

 I started with a yard and a half of fabric and based the shirt on this Spring Ruffle Top from Sew, Mama, Sew!  Using their handy measurement equations I cut out the front and back pieces (on their tutorial they have the measurements for a band that goes around the chest, and then the large pieces--I just combined the two) and the straps.  The large pieces were 22" long, 20" wide at the top and 22" wide at the bottom.  The straps were 5" by 22" (although when I actually attached them I shortened them to about 14").

I then cut the remaining fabric into 4" strips (approximately 52" long) to use for the flower.  I was able to get 6 strips out of the fabric but I only used about 4 and a half.

I folded the strap pieces in half (right sides together) and sewed along the long side, then turned it inside out and pressed (no need to hem the ends since they'll be attached to the body of the shirt).  Next I hemmed the top of the front piece, folding over 1/2", pressing, then folding over 1/2" again.  I attached the straps to the front while topstitching the hem, approximately 5" in from each side (I pinned and repinned until I got them positioned correctly.)  I reinforced the straps by sewing another line just where they connect to the body.

And now for the fun part: the flower!  The first strip I tried to ruffle before attaching but the fabric was so thick when folded in half that I didn't have much luck.  For the rest I just ruffled by hand as I pinned, then sewed in place.  The easiest way to do this was to fold the strips in half (wrong sides together) and then press them.  My fabric was sturdy enough that I didn't need to sew them together and since each layer of flower will cover the previous one I didn't worry about having unfinished edges.  Now you just pin and sew in concentric circles!

You can see in the first picture that when I got to the point where the circle was finished I would just move the fabric inside to the next level and keep going.  I ended up with 8 layers total.  When you get to the end it gets hard for the machine to get through all of the layers but go slowly (I even had to make the needle go down by hand a few times) and stop often to turn the shirt.  Since I didn't want to bother hemming the part that would show on the inside of the flower (but didn't want unfinished edges showing) I just folded the unfinished edge underneath so that it was hidden once the strip was sewn in place.  Here's the finished flower (front and back):

Now you just need to hem the top of the back piece (exactly like you did for the front) and attach the straps.  I did a lot of pinning and repinning here to get the straps right and they ended up being 14" long and a little closer together on the back than the front (so they won't fall off your shoulder).

Next pin, baste, and then sew the sides together (right sides together).  I ended up having gone too wide at the top, as you can see in the picture below, but this was easily fixed at this step.  I did a double line of stitching for the side seams and then pinked the edges (not shown here).

 

Now just hem the bottom and you're done!  I'm so excited to wear this shirt this spring (hopefully by my birthday it will be warm enough!)  And thanks again to Alexis for letting me post this tutorial...hope you enjoyed it!

Sweater Makeover

I've had this sweater for a few years but don't wear it very often - I love the color but it was a bit too big and not very flattering (sorry no before picture).  I decided to fix the shape and update it, and I was inspired by this J.Crew sweater.

To bring in the sides I turned it inside out and first pinned, then basted, a line starting at the underarms, curving in at my waist and curving back out to meet the bottom hem.  It might be hard to see in the picture below but this is the final seam.  I've used this technique a couple of times now (including on a Banana Republic dress on huge sale that was 2 sizes too big for me!) and as long as I pin and baste before sewing the actual seam it works very well.

I used a thick broadcloth fabric for the ruffle, as I just happened to have that nice purple color lying around!  To make the ruffle I cut a long strip (probably about a yard long) 4 inches wide, then folded it in half lengthwise with the right sides together, sewed one short end closed and down the long side.  Then came the time-consuming process of turning the fabric tube right side out (this time I used a knife sharpener with rounded top which worked pretty well).

Once the tube was right side out I pressed it flat and ruffled it.  To do this I sewed 2 rows down the middle, being sure not to overlap them, with the tension set to the highest number and the stitch length as long as possible.

Sewing 2 rows is helpful when ruffling thicker fabrics, and also helps to more evenly distribute the ruffles.  Then you just pull the strings and move the ruffles to evenly distribute them along the strip.

I then pinned the ruffle to the sweater, being sure to keep the sweater itself flat, then sewed in place.

I started with just the shoulder ruffle, like the J.Crew sweater, but thought it would be fun to add more.  I remembered seeing this shirt by Alexis of Made by Lex and liked the idea of a shape/line that continued onto the back of the sweater, so I added a squiggly circle on the side that curves around the back (in the picture it's laying flat but you can see where the side seam is, about a third of the way in from the left side).

This project was really easy and I was able to finish it in one evening and wear the sweater to work the next day!  The longest step was turning the ruffle inside out and then forming the ruffle.  Definitely a fun and easy project that makes you feel like you have a whole new piece in your wardrobe!