Little Girl's Aprons - Two Ways (Regular Hem and Laced Edge)

This is a really easy project that you can do in a couple hours...Maybe just one if your internet doesn't suck as bad as mine! (I was trying to watch TV on my computer while I did this, and it kept messing up. So annoying! And we just got broadband!!!! Grrrr....I digress....)

My pastor's wife asked me to make two aprons for her granddaughter for Christmas. This was the fabric. I decided to make them two different ways. It is just a 1/2 yard of 44" wide cotton fabric for both.

First thing I did was to fold each piece in half and stack them on top of each other. Then I cut 4 inches off the top of both of them.

The 4 inches I cut off would become the straps. I folded up about 3/8 of an inch on either side of the straps and ironed them.

Then, I folded them in half and ironed them.

So then, I folded up 3/8 of an inch on the sides of the actual apron parts. (I'm just showing you one as the example here, but I did them the same so far.)

And then I folded that fold over again and ironed.

Okay, this was on the Paris one and not the cupcake one: I cut off the corner of the sides and bottom hem. . .

And I folded the bottom up once. . .

And again, and pinned it in place. I did this to both bottom corners of the Paris apron only.

Then, I pinned it from the right-side. (I always pin things on the right side, because I like to see it while I sew. It just tends to look nicer if you sew the side that will show.)

So, here is my Paris apron so far. It has all the sides and bottoms neatly hemmed.

Along the raw top edge, I did a 6-point basting stitch.

I used my basting to gather the skirt.

Then, I found the middle of the skirt and the middle of the sash and put pins there. (Incidentally, I made sure the pattern was top-side up on both the apron and skirt so it would look right when finished.)

Then, I pinned just the one edge of the sash to the top of the skirt--pinning out from the middle.

I sewed that down.

Then, I let the sash folds fall into place and pinned those--again from the right side. (This picture is showing the wrong side.)

This is the right side. I sewed it down.

The finished Paris apron (from the back).

Okay, so this is how I did the cupcake skirt. I folded the sides of the skirt part in twice and ironed, but I left the top and bottom edges raw.

I basted the top edge and then stitched it to the sash the same way as before. (Again, making sure the print was top-side up.)

Okay, so it kinda looks done, except the bottom edge is still raw.

A closer look at the bottom edge.

Enter: cotton eyelit trim. I stitched the right side of the lace to the right side of the fabric.

It's hard to tell here, but the eyelit trim is sticking out about 1/8" from the pink fabric. This is to make sure the "raw-ness" of the unfinished edge gets covered.

Other than the first pin, I didn't use pins for this because I wanted to make sure the trim and the fabric ended at the same time. (In other words: No ease to worry about.)

So here is it from the right side.

All I did was fold the trim back and iron it.

Here it is with the trim ironed back. I didn't need pins now either because it was laying the way it needed to. Now, all I had to do was stitch it down.

The right side. A finished edge.

The wrong side. Still a finished edge.

And from the inside of the waistbands, the edges are also finished.

The End!!!

Refashioning: A Girl's Formal Dress into a Box Pleat Cupcake Skirt

I found this dress....guess where...Yep! The dollar rack.

It is a little girl's size 12/14 ball gown kinda dress. It was too small to fit me (and I don't like strapless), but the fabric on the bottom was enough to make a cute skirt from. It is silver and black brocade, but it looks like that high end designer embroidery that is always all over Dolce & Gabbana and Valentino and stuff...

I cut it apart. I'll probably use that bow for something later.

Okay, so once again, if you do something like this, make sure you zip the zipper pull down past where you want to harvest fabric, otherwise you will have to put in another zipper. (Side note, I did this right and then two minutes after I cut the bodice from the skirt, I wasn't thinking and zipped the skirt up...and pulled the zipper pull right the heck off! So. . .I had to install another zipper. . .so what I'm saying is: PAY ATTENTION!) :)

The fabric was all crinkly from being gathered.

So I had to iron it.

After ironing, I measured myself and put in box pleats that would fit my waist. Then, I remembered I had an old college choir skirt that I never wear, but it had a really nice waistband, so I cut it from that skirt and pinned and sewed it to this new skirt.

The finished skirt!

The End!

Simple Alterations for a Dress with a Gathered Skirt - Red Lace Dress

Remember when I made this Dolce and Gabbana inspired red lace dress? Well, ever since then, I try to be on the lookout for lace dresses. I got the one below from Goodwill for a dollar!! (Can you believe it???) It's obviously too big, so this blog is about how to do simple alterations to a dress with a gathered skirt.

First step is getting rid of those horrid armhole ruffles! They were actually sewn right in between the top layer and interfacing, so I simply cut them off, cutting really closely to the seam without snipping the important layers.

As you can tell from the picture above, the dress is just too wide for me, and the skirt is a tad long, making the dress look frumpy. 

There are several ways to go about altering a dress like this one. You could cut it apart and dart it and reattach the skirt. You could sew a seam from the arm hole to the bottom hem on both sides. I chose the method below because this dress has two layers to every part (lace over top a layer of white).

The first step in alteration was to sew a basting stitch about two fingers down from the waistband onto the skirt. This was primarily to keep the two layers together, but would also help me re-gather the skirt later when I reattached it.

A close-up.

In case it was too hard to tell from the pictures above, you can see the line I stitched onto the skirt here. (I'm pointing at it.)

The next thing I did was to cut right in between the waistband and the basting line I just stitched.

Here it is completely cut apart. See how important it was to baste the skirt before cutting? It stayed together in one piece this way.

Next, I sewed seams on either side of the bodice from the armpit to the waistband. I would have actually darted the bodice, except there is a little bit of elastic in the waistband and darting it would have made the waistband pucker weirdly.

Then, I trimmed the sides and overcasted the side seams.

Then, I grabbed the loose ends of the threads I used to sew the basting line and pulled at them and worked the fabric around until the skirt waist was the same size as the bodice waist.

Then, I pinned the bodice to the skirt, right sides together, and flattened the skirt back as much as possible to add a second row of pins. This second row was to help me as I sewed to keep the skirt gathers out of the way of the machine needle as skirt gathers like to pucker and jam in sewing machines.

This is after sewing and then overcasting the skirt to the bodice.

Then, I trimmed the excess fabric away from the waistband.

I look kind of gross here. It was the end of the day and I didn't feel like reapplying makeup!

It fits better now!

The End