Altering a Kimono Sleeve

I was at Walmart and saw a nice blue dress on sale. It was $9, which is what I usually pay at goodwill. (My all time favorite place to shop!) The sleeves were a little weird, but I thought I could probably fix them. I was itching to sew something! Since sewing as a hobby seems to be getting more and more expensive, I jump at a chance to alter. The sleeves are basically kimono sleeves. I didn't like them for two reasons. First it made the dress look like pajamas. Second you could see too much skin when moving my arm. I brainstormed and finally decided to just gather the entire top two shoulders. This worked great! Then I sewed the bottom edge of the armholes.

Here's how I did it. Decide your seam allowance and how much you're going to hem in the process of gathering. (I hemmed one inch on the top.) Also remember the more fabric you take off at the top, the shorter the finished dress or shirt will be and the smaller the head hole. (I learned this the hard way and had to stitch rip my seam.)

#1.Turn the dress inside out and run two gathering threads on the top of each sleeve.

#2.Then pull the threads on either side of the seam. Gather as evenly as possible and as much as you want the length of the sleeve to be. Do this on both sleeves.

#3. Now sew a straight line right below your gathering threads. Make sure the gathers are flat.

#4. Trim the excess fabric and zig-zag stitch the edge.

This is what it should look like right side out.  

Because the dress was a little large on me, I stitched the armhole an inch on both sides. 

Before

After 

Have you altered anything? I'd love to hear your adventures!

My Latest Sewing Endeavor...

So I started a skirt back in December and I finally finished it! Time really got away from me. I finally hemmed it on Saturday. I got the fabric from a friend and I made up the pattern. (Sort of)

One of my other skirts was too wide. For a while I wore it with a safety pin. Finally I decided to see if I could take it in. As I measured it I realized it was one panel too large! So I took out a panel (Lots of stitch ripping...) and used it as a pattern for another skirt. I added a zipper and a yolk for the top and then I was done...well almost. I realized after putting all the panels together that it was too big. The panels on the first skirt were two different sizes. Thankfully I was able to fix this by taking out one panel. Then I over stitched the seams and hemmed it. A simple but feminine skirt. But enough about the skirt, here it is...

 Have you made any sewing endeavors?

One Tiered Skirt Tutorial

You're going to need fabric, elastic, and thread. The seam allowances are 1/2 an inch. The skirt pictured in this post is for my little sister.

Measuring
For this skirt, there are two pieces: the top piece called the yoke and the bottom piece called the tier. To begin you are going to need to measure the waist of the person this skirt is for. Once I had the waist measurement I added 18 inches to it. In my case the yoke piece was 35 inches wide. I then added 20 inches to the yoke piece's width to make the tier width. The tier for the skirt was 55 inches wide. Make the tier at least 20 inches longer than the yoke.The longer the length, the fuller the skirt is going to be.

The length
For this skirt the yoke is one third the length of the tier. You can vary the two lengths depending upon the look you're going for. You could make the yoke longer and make the tier more like a ruffle. You could make them both the same length. Whatever you prefer. Just be sure both lengths together equal the total length you want, plus seam allowance.
 

1. Start by taking your yoke piece and sew both ends together, right sides together.
(No picture for this step) Do this with the tier as well.

 2. Take your yoke and iron over the top about 2/8 of an inch. Fold over again and iron about 1/2 an inch, depending upon the width of your elastic.
After ironing, pin and stitch all around the fold, leaving a small part unsewn, to form a casing. Now you are going to pull your elastic all the way through this casing. Start at the part you left unsewn and go all the way around. This can be made easier by attaching a safety pin to the end of your elastic. (Check out my scrunchy tutorial to see how to put the elastic in.) Now sew the elastic ends together and sew up the opening in the casing.

3. Now you can hem the tier. To do this, iron down how much you want hemmed, pin, and sew. (I hemmed mine down half an inch.)

4.The next step is to gather the tier. To do this, begin by stitching around the whole edge with a seam allowance of 3/8 of an inch, but do not back stitch at the beginning or the end. Leave a long thread on both ends of the row. Now you are going to pull on these threads. (Pull on the threads that make the fabric gather.)

5. You are going to have to gather just enough to make it the same circumference as the yoke. When you think you have it pretty close, begin pinning the yoke to the tier, right sides together. Keep moving gathers around and, with a little time, it should fit nicely. When you have it evenly pinned, stitch all the way around with the regular 1/2 inch seam allowance.

6. You now have made a skirt! You can cut all stray threads and then you're done. For another variant of this design, I made a skirt for myself awhile back with a 25 inch elastic, 55 inch yoke and 70 inches in the tier. (Click here to see) So, the difficult part is figuring the measurements. It all depends on the fullness you're going for and the style. (You can click here if you would like to see more photos of this finished skirt.)

If you have any questions, just ask!
Have you been doing any sewing projects?

Twirly, Swirly Skirt

I got the cutest floral fabric from my dear friend Shannon in Germany. Shannon sent it by mail and I fell in love with it. I made it into a skirt with a coordinate polka dot fabric. I really like how it turned out.

Tutorial on how to make this skirt, will be up on the blog soon. Stay tuned! 

Ode to photo shoots

Don't you just love photo shoots? Have you ever taken photos and they all just turn out exactly how you hoped they would? Yeah. Me neither. All the photo shoots I've tried have turned out to be adventures. Especially if they involve my sisters.

      Here we are. An inviting wood pile. Me, Abby and Maggie. I am wearing the dress I made last year. Abby and Maggie's dresses are very late Christmas gifts from me. They picked out their own fabric. They're more like early Easter dresses.

                   Oops. Well, there's my brother, overalls and all.  Always in action.

        I tried two different photo shoots.We decked out in sweaters and boots the first time.                 My sisters bared the cold for me.

                                     B&W

                                              Trusty camera gear.

                           The second photo shoot was much warmer, although windy.
                         We're holding dandelions if you can't tell.
                         The ants seemed very happy to reside in every dandelion we tried to pick up.

                                                     

                       "Run!"

 Awkward. We're in the middle of scurrying inside before the school bus comes by. We don't care to be seen by the outsiders. Not that we're scared or anything. Not very... ;-)

                                                            An inviting and exciting bench.

                                  We decided to take a little break on our loverly bench.

                                   And here we are with our turtle-y friend.

              

         And... a dog.
 Just how you should end a photo shoot don't you think?
I hope to have more of my sewing projects up soon. But I don't want to bore you, so that's all for now!  
Do you like photo shoots? Or are you the one forced into them?

•Crocheted Tree Tutorial•

With a little time on your hands you can make a cute last minute gift. This crocheted tree can be an ornament, applique or even a cleaning scrubby. You can experiment with this pattern to design your own original tree shape. I will start by showing you how to make the tree and then I'll show you how to make a tree trunk and how to stuff your tree (optional).

 You'll need two balls of yarn, crochet hook, large needle, and stuffing or felt.

 Begin with 12 stitches and crochet three rows.

 Then decrease one stitch and crochet three rows. Decrease one more stitch and crochet one row.

 Decrease one and crochet a row again. You should now have nine stitches.

Keep on decreasing one stitch and crocheting one row until you have one stitch on your hook. Now cut your yarn and finish off.

If you want to make a stuffed tree repeat the above steps to crochet two tree pieces.
If you'd like to make your tree a stump begin with two stitches on your crochet  hook and crochet about four rows. You should have a rectangular piece. Now roll it up and stitch it closed. It should look like a cylinder.
Put your stump aside for the moment. 

 Now take your stuffing and sandwich it between the two pieces. Start to whip stitch with yarn on one side of the tree and stitch your way to the top and down the other side.

 Take your stump and put it in the middle of the open end. Stitch one half of the opening and stitch the stump on all the way around.

Now stitch the other end closed. Tie off. You can decorate your tree with ribbon, buttons, and anything you like.

I crocheted a few little "ornaments".

I hope this all makes sense. If you have any questions just comment!
Have a blessed holiday season...

Summer Sewing

 After buying some fabric on Memorial day I had it all planned out what I was going to sew.
So, with my free time I sewed a cheerful summer dress.

I used this pattern again...

It's made out of turquoise patterned cotton, which I bought at Joann's.

 Sewing is so much fun! :-)


{Photos taken by my Sister.}



What have you been up to this summer?...

Pins & Needles...

 I've been doing a little crafting lately. I got out my patterns, pins and needles and went to work.
 

Can you guess what I made?

Fun On The Line.