Stitch by Stitch

This is what I did with the other leg piece. I meant to turn it into a pair of pants but it wasnt enough so I turned it into another bareback dress. This one wasn’t shirred as the width wasnt wide enough.

Don’t mind the hair, Arianna had just woken up from her nap before I rushed her into the dress and made her assume position. lol The things I put my girls through. DH said it’s scary how she knows what to do when she spots my camera and I tell her to go stand there and say cheese. LOL

What I did – a mini tute :

1. This time I didn’t chop both sides up, instead just straightenned the inner leg seam and sewed it up. Again, as with KR’s dress, I measured from the bottom hem up to the length I wanted it to be, and OL the edges.

2. Since I couldn’t shirr the bodice, I decided to use the same method you’d use for elastic bands but instead of elastic, I replaced it with straps made from the same fabric. It’s the same method I used for the straps for KR’s dress. So, you’d just have to tightenned it around the chest and bring the straps up behind the neck and tie it up.

And you’re done! TFL….

I’m pretty happy how these turned out! All from a pair of REALLY old almost vintage sort of cotton knit culottes from the 80’s – they belonged to my cousins and were hand-me-downs until the the elastic wore off and no one bothered to replace them that I took over. And even then, it sat ages in my wardrobe. I had even tightenned the elastic but after awhile, I kinda got sick of it coz I’m really not into culottes so during my recent raid, I knew it was destined to be a recon. It was meant to be Arianna’s but you’ll see why it’s not.

Looking chic in her new-old shirred bareback dress [Note how the bodice fits her so nicely? It would have strangled Arianna! *lol*]

What I did – a non-pix tutorial:

1. From one half of the legs [it's a 2 pattern pieces pants, iykwim], I took off as long as I wanted the dress/tunic/top to be, measuring it from the bottom so I didn’t have to bother hemming it up.

2. Then [stupidly] trimmed both sides to give it a bit of a shape, which I think I shouldn’t have bothered with anyway since with the shirring, you can’t really see the shape. Then I sewed 6 rows of shirring at the top and joined the side seams.

3. For the straps, using the same fabric from scraps left behind, I folded [right sides together] 2 pieces of 47cmx4cm into half and sewed one top and side steams together. Into an ‘L’ shape so to speak and using a pencil, I pushed it through the sewn strap so that I could turn it right side out. Then I just handsewed the other open end, tucking the raw edges in and stiching it up. Lastly, attach the straps by also handsewing them to the bodice. For this dress, I attached it 3cm away from the side seam, I think 4 or 4.5cm would be better. But it’s up to your personal preference of course.

And you’re done!

A backview of the dress

Despite measuring [a sleeping baby], I think this dress is a little long but I was thinking that longer is better so she can grow into it. Also, if the shirring gets too tight, I can later on unpick it and turn it into Arianna’s design [coming up next].

Will be uploading Arianna’s one as well once I’ve taken pix of her in it. TFL….Happy Upcycling!

This is my first attempt at sewing a reversible item. I was very excited about this pattern and when I decided on the fabric, got the pattern cut out….suddenly I found myself so unmotivated to sew at
all!! I really felt weird and a little upset with myself but somehow managed to start on it. It was a superbly slow start as I was literally sewing one seam a day. It wasn’t until I finished the velour/inner section that I got my sewjo back!

Using fine blue cord for the outer wear and hot pink velour on the reverse. The sleeves gave me hell as I could not understand the instructions! Took me 2 days of brewing over before I got it. [I do mention at the end how I did it though.] I am actually quite proud of myself for figuring it out on my own. Buttons on both sides are fabric covered with the same fabric of the coat but on contrasting sides.

Hot pink velour for the inner bit. I see Arianna wearing the blue one more often than the pink as velour is OH so snuggly!

And here’s my little model :

Pattern review :

I found the pattern rather straight forward and easy to follow until I reach the part where we had to join the sleeves together and for the life of me, I could not understand the instructions at all. I took 2 days to brew over it before caving in and asking for help at the forum. The mamas there were helpful but this was more of a ’show’ problem so it was tough to put into words trying to explain to me. So I took the advice of one of the mamas…I got into the ‘zone’, and while watching Arianna play and literally having my nose take up that wonderful baby sweetness of KR’s hair, it clicked! I quickly dumped the kids and immediately tried this idea I had in my head and VOILA! It worked… So, in case anyone has/had trouble with this as I have, I thought I’d share how I did it :

Place the sleeves facing end to end on corresponding sleeves. Make sure the right sleeves are facings each other of you will be attaching the wrong sleeves together.

I pinned them together starting from the joined sleeves to align them.

This is pretty much what it looks like once you’ve pinned it down.

Stitch the sleeves to join them together

Ta-daa! You’ve done it the Otto way although I’m sure there may be other ways to do this. I put my hand through the opened back bottom hem and pulled the joined sleeve bit so that they’d turn out this way. Hope that helped!