fathers day 2012 magazine: Spring Fling Dress Tutorial

Spring Fling Dress

Version A - The Sassy Girl

Spring Fling Dress

Version B - The Fairy Princess

Disclaimer:

I am not a professional seamstress, so my techniques might not be perfect (or 'the way you are supposed to do it'). This tutorial is simply a guide... you might come up with a better way of pulling it all together. :)

Now that that is out of the way...

Materials Needed

- Fabric (see instructions for each version for specifics)

- Zipper (I used a 7" zipper for each)

- Thread

- Heat & Bond (for a youth medium, I used a 6"x25" strip)

- Ribbon optional (Version B)

- Elastic, 1" width, approx. 24" (for straps in Version A)

Measurements

1) Measure your child around the chest, underneath their arms just under their armpits, to know what size to cut for the bodice. (My 7 year old was 25" and my 3 year old was 22")

2) Decide where the top of the dress will reach on your child and measure from there on the chest down to where the "skirt" of the dress should begin. (I measured 5" for my 7 year old and 4" for my 3 year old)

3) Measure from the top of the "skirt" from the measurement above, and decide how long the dress will be. (I measured to above the knee for Version A at 18" and to the ankle for Version B at 22")

4) Get an approximate measurement for each of the straps, measuring over the shoulder from where you expect the straps to attach to the front and back of the bodice. (I estimated 12" for my 7 year old and 10" for my 3 year old, with lots of wiggle room)

Cut Your Fabric

I am a quilter, so I have a cutting mat, rulers, and a rotary cutter. So these are what I used. To understand how to cut your fabric, you need to line up your salvage edges, smooth it out, and cut from fold to salvage. Your length of each strip cut will be about 44" long when unfolded. See the photo below...

Version A - The Sassy Girl

Bodice Fabric

- Take your chest measurement and add 2". Take your bodice measurement and add 1". Cut two strips using those dimensions. For example, I had 25" chest measurement (add 2" to get 27") and a 5" bodice measurement (add 1" to get 6"), so I cut two strips that were 27"x6".

- Cut 1 strip of Heat & Bond to the same measurement.

My bodice strips

Skirt Fabric

You can use three different fabrics for the skirt, or you can use all the same. If you plan on making a larger size, you may need to use more fabric than I list here. These are the instructions for a youth medium or small.

You also need to decide on the length of each fabric row in the skirt. For my skirt, I had two 6" rows, and a 4" ruffle at the bottom. So my total skirt length was 16". If your skirt length needs to be longer then that, you will want to cut wider strips (so two 7" rows and a 5" row will give you a skirt length of 19"). If your skirt length needs to be shorter than 16", then cut thinner strips (so two 5" rows and a 3" ruffle will give you a skirt length of 13").

My skirt strips

- Cut 1 strip (from fold to salvages) of your top skirt fabric to the width you determined above plus 1". For example, I cut a strip of fabric at 7" so I would end up with a 6" length row on my skirt.

- Cut 2 strips (from the fold to salvages) of your middle skirt fabric to the same width as cut above.

- Cut 4 strips (from the fold to the salvages) of your bottom, ruffle fabric, to the width you determined above plus 1". For example, I cut strips of fabric at 5" so I would end up with a 4" ruffle length on my skirt.

Scrunchy Straps Fabric

- Cut 1 strip (from the fold to the salvages) of your shoulder strap fabric at 3.5".

Waistband Fabric optional

- Cut 1 strip (from the fold to the salvages) of your waistband fabric at 4.5".

Version B - The Fairy Princess

Bodice Fabric

- Cut 1 strip of Heat & Bond to the same measurement.

Skirt Fabric

- Cut 1 strip (from the fold to the salvages) of a lining fabric to the skirt length measurement taken above, adding 1". For example, I had a 22" skirt measurement (add 1" to get 23") so I cut a 23" strip.

- Cut 2 strips (from the fold to the salvages) of your sheer fabric to the the skirt length measurement taken above, adding 2". For example, I had a 22" skirt measurement (add 2" to get 23") so I cut two 24" strips.

Gathered Ribbon Straps Fabric

- Cut 1 Strip (from the fold to the salvages) of your shoulder strap fabric at 2.5".

On to the sewing!

Choose the strap style you'd like to use...

Scrunchy Straps - Version A

Step 1

Fold your fabric in half along the width, with right sides together, and sew a 1/4" seam.

Step 2

Turn your fabric right-side-out. I do this by attaching a large safety pin to the top edge and feeding it through the casing. You will now have a long tube. You may choose to press your fabric, however, I chose not to.

Step 3

Thread your elastic through your strap casing. You will need enough for each of your two straps (as estimated in your measurements above) plus about 3". I feed my elastic through by attaching a safety pin to the end like I mentioned in Step 2.

Step 4

Sew each end of you straps so that the elastic and fabric are secured.

Gathered Ribbon Straps - Version B

Step 1

Fold your fabric in half along the width, with right sides together, and sew a 1/4" seam.

Step 2

Turn your fabric right-side-out. I do this by attaching a large safety pin to the top edge and feeding it through the casing. You will now have a long tube.

Step 3

Press your straps. I chose to press mine with the seam on the back side. You may choose to press the seam to one of the sides so that you don't "see" it, but there is no right or wrong way to do it.

Step 4

Gather your ribbon! I chose a sheer 1" ribbon. To gather it, lengthen your stitch setting on your machine, and stitch down the middle of your ribbon. I found that the perfect ruffle was about 2.5 times the length of my straps. Once you have finished stitching, grab one of the threads and gently tug. As you do, the ribbon will begin to gather. Smooth out your gathers so you are left with a gathered ribbon like you see below.

Note:

You may want to use a matching thread in case you aren't able to remove all of the gathering thread once it is sewn to your straps. Also, another tip is to sew your gathering thread slightly off center, so when you sew down the center, you are not sewing over top of your gathering thread... making it easier to remove once it is attached to the straps.

Step 5

Make sure you reset your stitch length! Once you do so, place your ruffle over your pressed strap, and sew down the middle. You will need to sew a little bit at a time as you smooth out your ruffles here.

Sewing the Bodice - Version A & B

Ok.... I had some ideas after sewing the first dress that made the second come together much easier/nicer. So you may see images of both dresses... but the instructions are the same.

Step 1

Lay one strip of your bodice fabric over the "sticky" side of your Head & Bond, and press them until fused together.

Step 2

Decide where your straps will go. I took my bodice strip from Step 1 and pinned it around my daughter that the dress is being made for. From there, I pinned the location where each strap should fall on the front of the dress. You can see, for the youth medium, the straps are about 5" apart, and fall at about 11.5" and 16".

Now attach your straps by pinning them to the points you've determined. Again, note you are pinning them to the bodice strip that has the Heat & Bond fused to it's back-side. Also note that my straps are pinned with the back-side on top (in other words, right sides together).

Step 3

Pin your second bodice strip in place, with right-sides together.

Sew along the top edge of your bodice strips, making sure to secure the straps when you do. I chose to sew a 1/2" seam. I also also reinforced the straps by sewing over them a couple of times.

Step 4

Press your seam open.

Then fold the back-side down, and press your bodice seam flat.

Step 5

Turn in the sides of each end of your bodice about 1/2", and press flat. You may choose to baste these down, which I did for one, but found it not necessary with the fabric I was using. The zipper will be sewn into these sides later.