Saturday, June 9, 2012

Sundress in a Sunday

Lazy Sundays are just made for sewing. Last Sunday my mother and I sat and sewed together for our little girls. (Mine is about to be one, hers is six.) We sewed the same dress, following another crafty momma's tutorial. (See it here) Here's mine:





As you can just see peeking under Junebug's dress in the second picture, I added a diaper cover, which is not in the original tutorial. Make your own like this: (all my measurements were for an 11 month, 20 pound baby)

You need:
Fabric-about a yard
1/8" elastic
1" elastic

Making the pattern:
1. Measure your little one's tummy, then take that number and multiply it by 1.5, and then take that number and divide it by 2. Junebug's tummy was 20 inches around, so 20x1.5=30, 30/2=15 inches was what I ended up with. That number will be the width of the top of your pattern piece. Write that down, and mark it WIDTH. Also, take the original waist measurement, add 1 inch, and label it WAIST E.
2. Measure your little one from just under the belly button to the middle of the underneath of her diaper. Or, take one of her diapers and measure top to bottom while it's still folded in half. Take that number and add 1 and a half inches. Mine wound up being 12 inches.. Write that down, mark it LENGTH.
3. Finally, measure around your little one's thigh, not snugly but so that you can stick your pinky between the measuring tape and her skin. Write that number down and mark it LEG-E. Then, divide that number by 2, and mark it LEG. Mine wound up being 16 inches for LEG-E and 8 for LEG.

Ok, I know all that might seem confusing, but I promise it gets easier from here. Take all those numbers you wrote down, and apply them to this shape:



The WAIST E and LEG E measurement are for your elastic pieces. WAIST E is cut from the 1" elastic and LEG E from the 1/8" elastic. Cut one of WAIST E and two of LEG E.
Now, you can either draw your pattern directly onto your fabric using chalk or a fabric marking pen that washes out, or you can draw it onto paper so that you'll have a pattern you can use again. Make sure your fabric is folded in half so that you'll actually cut out 2 of these pieces.

Sewing instructions:
1. Lay (or draw with chalk) and pin your pattern on top of your fabric. (Should be folded so that you've got two layers.)
2. Lay your two pieces so that they are right sides together. This means that the pretty colored part of both pieces should be on the insides touching each other and your diaper cover should look like it's inside out. Pin it.




3. Sew the sides and bottom. Use a 1/2" seam allowance, which means keep the edge of your fabric lined up with the edge of your presser foot.
4. Fold down and iron the top of your cover 1 1/2".

5. Stitch close to the bottom edge of your fold all the way around, leaving an opening in the middle.

6. Fold under and sew the leg holes the same way, only this time only fold it about 3/4".

7. Stick a safety pin through the end of your piece of 1" elastic. Slide the safety pin into the opening you left in the waist of your cover and start feeding it through the tube you made. When it makes it back out the other side, overlap the two ends of elastic a little and sew them together so that they make one continuous loop.

8. Do the same for each of the legs using the 1/8" elastic, and then finish sewing closed all three holes that you'd left open for the elastic.
9. Turn it right-side out and pair it with your home-made sundress!

No comments:

Post a Comment