Making McCalls 5835 easier

McCalls 5835 pattern for dresses, tops, and capris for a young girl produces a fun and pretty dress.  But, the directions for sewing the bodice are notoriously difficult to follow.  All over the blogosphere, sewists have been complaining about it.  In conjunction with some sewing friends of mine, we have come up with better directions to make the bodice, so you don't have to toss out this pattern!

First of all, the pattern itself:

If you are a fan of Matilda Jane Flutter dresses, this is the pattern to get!  The capris and shorts are also easy and fun to make for a girl.  However, the bodice directions are not easy to understand and are time consuming to sew.  So, I made a few changes.

First of all, cut out your pattern as directed.  Here are all the bodice pieces, two for the front, two each for both sides of the back.  This dress has a lining and I am using the same fabric for both sides.

 Next, I sewed each front piece to its corresponding back pieces at the shoulders.  

See?  This is now what they look like. 

 Iron the seams down, lay them on top of each other, right sides together, and pin.  Do not pin the waistlines!  You are not going to sew the waistlines for any of these pieces. 

 Just a reminder, do not sew the waistlines!  Keep them open.

 Now, sew where you have pinned, around the neckline and down both armholes.  Remove pins and turn inside out.  Turn it inside out through the front waist.  Here it is halfway turned.

 Use whatever tool you have to make your corners nice and pointy and iron flat.  Like this:

 Top stitch all the way around the seams you just sewed. 

 Sew the two back pieces together at the waist, like you see below: Just a wee stitch to keep the back together.

 At this point, the fraying is starting to bother me so I like to serge the waist. I use a rolled edge.  I will explain why later.  Here it is with the finished waist seams.

 Now, on to the sleeves!  I like the rolled edge look.  If you do not, you can do whatever kind of seam you prefer.  The pattern calls for a folded and sewn edge.   I pin the sleeve to the underside of the armhole, like so:

 

Then, I flip it over and sew the sleeve on along the same line as the top stitching.

See, the pins are underneath!

Now, the sleeves is sewn on.

I now serge the corner, where the sleeve meets the bodice, so it is neat and tidy.  This is why I used a rolled edge for all the bodice seams.  It makes it all look neat and tidy when I am done.

Viola!  The bodice is now finished.

And here is a sample of the finished product!  This one has different sleeve fabric, but I followed the remainder of McCall's directions to produce the dress you see below.  I did make one more modification and that was to sew the upper ruffle on top of the dress with two rolled edges. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and are able to get this fun pattern.

A very pretty dress!

I am proud of this very pretty dress I made for a sewing client.  It was inspired by another design but made with fabrics from my own stash.  I emulated the design, using my own choices.  I love the ruffle detail at the bottom.  All the fabrics are from the Delilah by Tanya Whelan line except the ruffle which is an older Whelan line.

And I have to put a plug in for a new shop I found on Etsy, Retronana.  She has such pretty buttons and ribbons there.  The ribbon on the dress above is from her store.  Check her out.   You won't be disappointed.

Alexander Henry 2D zoo dresses!

I've had the pleasure of working with some lovely Alexander Henry fabric, called 2DZoo.  Here it is in the skirt of these dresses I made.  The first two are size 12 months, made for two different clients.

 Here it is in a size 4, also made for a sewing client.   This is the back view.

 Here is the front view of the size 4. 

These dresses are copies so I cannot claim credit for the beautiful organization of fabrics.  These were done for sewing clients of my business, Delphinium Designs.  Look for me on Facebook!

Loulouthi - fabric love!

Anna Maria Horner's new line has been previewed.  Loulouthi is stunning.


Check it out!


Here is but one colorway:

Click on the link above to check out the rest.   So pretty!

Making a very twirly circle skirt - Free Tutorial

Here is an easy way to make a circle skirt for a little girl.  This will be a very twirly skirt! 

To start with, you have to make a circle for the top panel.

To achieve this, you need to measure the hips of your girl.  Then, you need to find the radius of your circle.  The equation to do that is hips+2 divided by 3.14 divided by 2=radius.   The width of your fabric will depend on how large you want the panels to be.  In this case, I wanted the final skirt to be 10-12 inches long so I made each panel 6 inches wide. 

Take your panel and fold and fold it again so you have a rectangle folded twice.  From the folded corner, measure your radius and mark it.  Get something circular to trace a circle of that radius.  Remember that radius is a straight line from the center to the circumference of a circle or sphere.

You can find your radius by measuring from the corner down that length on each side of the double folded corner.  Measure out that far into the fabric and mark.  That is your radius. Lay your circle template on top of that mark so it curves from one point to the other, thru the mark in the middle. 

Here is my example.

I cut the top circle and then measured down 6 inches and cut another circle of same curvature.
I used my ruler to do this. I marked the fabric every inch or so and cut on those markings.


 

Now, to make the bottom panels.  Remember, they are 6 inches wide. To know how long to cut, you measure the bottom of the circle and times by two.  Cute two panels out for that width and length, in this case 6 inches wide by 36 inches long. 


This skirt is going to have two different fabrics on the bottom.  I cut two rectangles each 6" X 36".  The purple is for the waistband casing.  To make  the waistband casing, measure the inner circle.  Cut a rectangle 2.5 inches by this length, plus a one inch in length to account for seam allowance.
The purple, below, is for the waist.

 Time to add embellishments, if any.

Next, sew the panels together into one big loop. Hem the bottom how you see fit: rolled hem, fold twice and sew, or serge and fold once and sew.  Then, gather the whole thing.  I recommend you try one of two methods for gathering: a) zig zag over fishing line, pin panels to upper tier, and pull on fishing line to gather; or b) sew two loose stitches, near the upper edge, pin panels ot upper tier, and pull on one stitch to gather.

Now, attach the ruffled lower panel to the bottom of the upper circle tier. 

This is not as easy at it looks so go slow and work carefully.
Consider taking a breather to pet the cat resting on the floor next to you.

This is Jake. He enjoys flipping in a patch of sun, right in the path between my two machines.

Next, finish the hem between the layers.

 Iron and top stitch.

 

 To make the waist casing, fold the fabric in half, wrong sides together, and iron flat.  You will now have a 1.25" by waist length casing.   Sew this into a loop with a 1/2" seam allowance and then attach to the circle, leaving a few inches open for elastic insertion.  Finish the hem between casing and upper circle tier, except for the opening. 

Measure your girl's waist. Subtract 2 to 3 inches for stretch and cut that length of 3/4" or 1" elastic.

Or, use this handy elastic cutting guide.

Size 2 cut 16"
Size 4 cut 18"
Size 6 cut 19"
Size 8 cut 21"
Size 10 cut 22"
Size 12 cut 23"
Size 14 cut 24"

 Insert into the casing, pull all the way through, and then sew the casing closed.
Serge the now closed opening.

 Voila! You have a very twirly circle skirt!

The skirt above is a size four.  Here's a size chart for other sizes. This accounts for a half inch seam allowance on all seams.

For sizes 2-15, cut waist casing 2.5 inches by measurement of inner circle.

For sizes 2-6, cut panels 36 inches long
For sizes 8-14, cut panels width of fabric. 

Work space and organization

Yesterday, I was fed up with my fabric being spread all over the sewing area in a bunch of bins so I organized them.  The fabric I am working with for the next month is now all nicely folded on my rack.   Isn't it pretty? 

The large bins hold the knits and fleece and other fabric that I am not using.  The small bins have notions.   You might be able to tell by looking at the small bin on top of the two large ones that my ribbons are a disaster!  I am currently looking into how to organize them.  I love the idea shown here.   But I don't like how those cookie containers get brittle quickly.  We have saved them in the past for children's crafting and they become brittle in less than a year and crack easily.  The softer plastics last longer, especially the Rubbermaid brand.  I have not had a Rubbermaid container every crack!  Sterilite, on the other hand, is terrible. (I digress)

So, I am thinking of combining the blog's idea and just using my Rubbermaid bins.  I just took all the cardboard to the recycling center so I will have to wait a while to collect more.  Then, I can try out this idea of cutting the semi circles.  I still have not figured out a good way to store the ribbon circles.  Ideas?

So, here is my sewing area for now. 

Fabric Storage

More fabric, but perhaps this could be only for notions?  Not a bad idea.

Part of my Ottobre stash.   I keep the pattern maps and tracings in a file folder.

My work area.  I need something on the wall but the cats used the corkboards I had up as scratching posts.  Only one left!  Damn cats!

Sewing table, with view of front yard. I sew in the daylight basement/family room. 

Basket to left is cat bed.  They claimed it. Kinda cute.

Handmade Dress Haven

I started a new page on Facebook for appreciation of the Handmade Dress for little girls.   It used to be called Matilda Jane Lookalikes, after the Matilda Jane Company, but they did not like sharing the name so I changed it to Handmade Dress Haven.

Please check it out!  It is a great place to share patterns and fabrics for dresses and accessories for little girls handmade items.  It is also a great place to find a person to make something for you or to share that you can make something for others.  Spam of handmade items is allowed.