Twirl-Construction Notes

Wow. I can't believe how many comments and emails this Little Dress has generated. Thanks, all!

I see that there is a contest going on over at Pattern Review for a knock off design, and since the prize is $200, I'm thinking about it.....what do yall think? That sure would make a lot more Little Dresses if I won, wouldn't it?

Who am I kidding? The Little Dresses will continue anyway. I just can't help myself.

Would it surprise you to know that I currently have 16 more designs sketched out, based on the basic Twirl pattern?

Or that I've squeezed 10 additional designs and suggestions so far out of the Male Inhabitants in this house? These guys are really creative, if I can just get them off the X-Box and the Internet and basketball.....

See?

It's kind of surprising, actually, since I live in the House of Testosterone, that I get such great input from these guys. Maybe they just humor me to get me to shut up and go away, but they are quick to say Yes, that's good! or Good grief, Woman, get a grip on yourself.

I get that last one a lot.

On to the Construction Notes:

In an effort to remember/not lose/keep track of/organize myself, I now keep a legal pad on the sewing table. And a pencil with an eraser. This way I can jot down little notes as I sew about sewing order, seam allowances, interfacing, and machine settings. In the long run this will be a huge time saver, since those Little Twin Girls are cooking right along.....She Who Is Pregnant With Twins is at 26 weeks and growing.

For the skirt ruffles, which we will refer to as Ruffles A, I used 20 strips. For the hem ruffles (Ruffles B), I used 9 strips. This dress is a fabric hog.

I used fusible knit interfacing, cut into 1 1/2" strips, to interface the back bodices.

While roll hemming with the serger, I once more ran out of thread. This time it was on the left needle, and I discovered that you get an even thinner roll hem if you thread the right needle only. I really like it better that way. And I love the look of machine embroidery thread in the upper and lower loopers on the roll hem.

For the elastic in the back, I measured the length of the back bodice/skirt seamline and cut a piece of baby elastic 2 inches shorter than the measured seam. After sewing and serging the skirt to the bodice, I zigzagged the center of the elastic to the seamline. No casing was needed, and I got nice soft gathering for a better fit, just like I wanted.

I made the underskirt from a skirt circle and added the ruffle at the bottom.

I plan to make a more permanent copy of my original pattern. I will draw it with 1/4" seam allowances on the neck and armholes, and 3/8" everywhere else. It is more efficient, time-wise, to start out with 1/4" allowances on the neck and armholes, since I have to trim off the excess anyway. I will still need to clip the seam allowances. I have found that it is much easier and more accurate to sew curves with a small seam allowance.

Total Cost of this Little Dress:

5 1/2 yards fabric (Poly/cotton from Joann's)

11.00

3 buttons

3.00

Sewing thread

2.59

Machine embroidery thread

5.49

Interfacing

.25

Total Cost

22.33

Since the original dress was priced at $195.00, I saved $172.67. I can make more dresses!

No, my Little Dress is not silk.

No, my Little Dress is not dry clean only.

Yes, I love this Little Dress.

Now that I have the pattern perfected, the cutting figured out, the sewing order established, and the serger submitted to my will, I figure I could make one of these Little Dresses from start to finish in 4 hours flat.

I just might try it. Am I nuts, or what? I'm thinking bright blue with a lime green ruffle at the bottom.....need fabric, need more fabric, gotta have me some fabric........

While I try to decide, I'm trying to work out this little number, based on Twirl:

One of the Random Teenagers has named this one Doritos. I may have to cut one of these out real soon.

Twirl-Done!

Twirl is finished! I went back to Plan A, and added a hot pink underskirt and ruffle after all.




I have to say thank you to all of you who left suggestions in the comments. I, too, thought the neck ruffle might get itchy. But it sure was cute, wasn't it.......something similar may appear in the very near future.

My husband, kind and considerate as always, loves to share everything with me. Unfortunately, he has shared the flu. Maybe that's one reason I had so much trouble with the darn serger? Hmmmm......at any rate, I made three pages of notes on Twirl and I'll share them with yall later. Right now, I'm going to sit here and just look at this Little Dress a while before I go to bed.

But just this one more thing--I'm happy now!

Twirl-Almost There....

I'm almost finished, I think. I have one last decision to make.

I've decided that a hot pink ruffle at the bottom will look lost and out of place, since there isn't hot pink anywhere else. So, here's the current status of the front:




And the back:




And since I am so enamored of this view, the full circle:




So I need to decide whether to add this little ruffle around the top edge:




I'm thinking Yes. Opinions?


And here's a hint for using the gathering foot. Fold your soon-to-be ruffle in half and press about 8 inches down the center to get a crease, like so:




When you put the strip in the ruffler, put the needle dead center of the crease. Notice where the seam width marking is on your machine (in my case, it's 1 inch, down there at the very bottom of the photo) and you can easily keep the thing lined up for perfectly centered gathering.

Works for me. But you really have to have a good handhold on the strip as it feeds into the pleater. Whoa, baby!

Twirl-The Bodice

It turns out that I spoke too soon yesterday. The Force was not with me; instead, The Empire took the day. I had serger problems. Or rather I had a mental problem. At any rate, like An Idiot I ran out of thread on the serger on not just one, but two bobbins. So I spent a couple of hours trying to rethread the thing, only to have it lock up with a humongous knot of thread.

This morning the world is a more beautiful place. When I woke up, I just knew that I had the looper threaded incorrectly. Three minutes later I was back in business again. I'm telling yall, sleep is just magical!

So since I couldn't use the serger, I made this little purple bodice. Here's the front:





And here's the back:




Weird how a flash changes colors, isn't it? It looks like I used red thread, but I didn't. And that little bit of white in that top buttonhole is a piece of basting thread that wants to be visited by Mr. Tweezers. Where is he, anyway? The last time I saw him, he was getting cozy with Little Miss Thread Snips, and she's gone to. They probably ran of to Vegas.

This is a good place to point out that yes, indeed, I have already worked the buttonholes. I try to put in the buttonholes on any garment at the earliest point in the contruction process. Buttonholes usually cause me the most aggravation, so if I can put those bad boys in without cross seams, collars, bands, and skirts in the way, I do. It makes me happier, and we all know that sewing makes us happy. That's the whole point, isn't it?

This will become the skirt ruffles. I'm starting off with 450 inches. I'm off to make rolled hems!

Twirl-The Ruffles, Part 2

Thanks, all, for your comments and suggestions about the ruffles on Twirl. I agree. I didn't like it much, either. So I've taken the skirt apart, removed the ruffles, shortened the skirt 6 inches (it was WAY too long) and this is where I am now:




I had to redraw the ruffle circles, since shortening the skirt meant that I had to cut off that bottom tier. So now it's redrawn and remarked. I'm redoing the ruffles. See?





Just for the record, I'm using the gathering foot, set on 1, with a stitch length of 4. After some measuring, I found that this gives me a gathering ratio of 3 to 1. That's nice and full and fluffy, and I was right about it taking a ton of fabric for those cute little ruffles.

Here's a heads-on shot of the gathering foot in action. In these photos I'm actually gathering two ruffles at one time!





I love this presser foot. If one is available for your machine, get it. It's tons of fun.

Now I have the dress perfectly fitted to The Princess, with the correct finished length all figured out (finally!), and since I'm off tomorrow--yippee--I plan to cut out the REAL Twirl!

Twirl-The Ruffles, Part 1

I've had great fun making ruffle samples. Once I decided on the settings for my gathering foot, I cut some muslin strips, serged the cut edges, and gathered them up. I followed the black basting lines on the skirt and basted those babies on. See?




I just did the front three. I still want to play with different gather types before I make a commitment.

I'm off to bed, have to go to the J-O-B in the morning, of course. Meanwhile, if you would, leave a comment and let me know what you think, OK? Should the ruffles be closer together, more "gathery", more rows, whatever?

Thanks for reading my blog, by the way. I don't think I say that often enough!

Yeah, It's My Birthday, Alright

It certainly is. And I can feel my Advancing Age. Here's the latest example.

I'm in the sewing room, putting a new spool of thread on the Bernina. I'm all set. I have the bobbin in, the machine threaded up, my little circle skirt pinned to the bodice. All I need to do is baste the skirt to the bodice. I'm very excited. I even have the glasses on.

I put the dress on the machine, line everything up, lower the presser foot, and I push down on the foot lever. Nothing. No sewing action AT ALL. Just a really loud "Wwwhhheeeeeeeeeeee" noise.

I try again. "Wwwwhhheeeeeeeeeee."

I remove the dress, turn off the machine. Take a deep breath. Turn the machine back on again. "Wwwhhhheeeeeeeeeee."

I turn the thing off and try it again. "Wwwhhheeeeeeee."

My ears tear up. Blurred vision. One more time. "Wwwhhheeeeeeeee."

A Random Teenager walks past the sewing room door. I'm desperate.

Me: "Honey, I can't sew. The Bernina won't work."

RT: Notices the tears. "What's wrong with it?"

Me: "I don't know. It won't work. It keeps doing this---"Wwwhhheeeeeee."

RT: Gives the Bernina A Look That Would Melt Polyester. "What is that noise?"

Me: "I don't know." "Wwwwheeeeeeee." "I have to take it to the repair shop."

RT: Serious look on young face. He KNOWS that he will have to go with me to the repair shop. And that I will be tense and tearful all the way there. "Do you have it threaded right?"

Me: "Of course. I just redid it." I reach up to show him and notice that the BOBBIN WINDER is turned on.................

"Oh, no. I had the bobbin winder turned on."

RT: Gives me The Look. The Look, that with just one glance, tells me all I need to know.

I am getting old.

RT: Look changes to the Thank You, Lord Look. You've seen it yourself on the faces of your own offspring. It's The Look that says:

Thank you, Lord, for letting her figure this out right now, here, in the privacy of our own home, so that her Total Stupidity can remain a family secret.

Thank you, Lord, for letting her figure this out right now, so that I don't have to ride in the car with her at breakneck speed for 75 miles to the Bernina place, with her crying and swerving all over the road.

Thank you, Lord, for letting her figure this out right now, so that I don't have to tote that stupid sewing machine into the Bernina place, with her crying and all, only to have the Bernina lady take one look and say, "You have the bobbin winder turned on."

Thank you, Lord, for sparing me the ultimate humiliation of being embarassed by my mother IN PUBLIC.

Thank you, Lord, for letting her sew tonight, so she will forget that I STILL haven't cleaned my nasty, filthy bathroom.

I dried my face, lowered the presser foot, and 15 minutes later I had this:





I'm happy now. And I should be, because it IS my birthday, after all.

Twirl-Drafting The Skirt

I sewed together the muslin bodice and tried it on The Princess. The little tucks in the front are perfect. It's amazing how such a simple little thing like the tucks can move a garment from "blah" to "boutique". Without them, this little bodice would have been shapeless and squarish. This explains my addiction to vintage children's patterns very well-those little design details add so much charm to Little Dresses, don't they?

I pinned in some very slight alterations to the bodice, mainly shortening the sleeve depth and removing a smidgen of width in the front and back necklines. See?





You may have noticed that the muslin bodice is lined. What? You don't line your little muslin bodices? I am SUCH a nerd, aren't I?

On to drafting the circle skirt pattern. Math will be involved. If you can divide, this is easy. If you can't, get a calculator. Or a Random Teenager, if one is available. This is your chance to find out if your kid sleeps in class. Oh, the stories I could tell.....

To draft the circle, I have to know the circumference of the bottom of the bodice. So I measured it with the tape measure, and it came out to 25 inches. So that step was pretty easy.

Now I need to draw a circle with a circumference of 25 inches. Here comes the math part.

I used this handy little mathematical formula:

Circumference=pi X diameter

Now I know the circumference (25) and I know pi (3.14), so I get

25 = 3.14 X diameter

I divide 25 by 3.14 and the answer is 7.96 inches. Let's just call it 8.

I make marks 8 inches apart on the paper. Then I mark the middle-that will be 4, yall.

I put the protractor like so, and rotate around from the marked middle:




And I get half the circle:

Since I'm such a nerd, I put my cloth tape measure on edge and measured around the outside of that red half circle. And guess what? It measured 12 1/2", which is perfect! Life is good.

I did a little thinking and decided my skirt needed to be 17 inches long, so I marked it off and cut it out and here is my skirt pattern!

The astute among you are saying "That's not a half circle!" You're correct. Since my muslin is only 35 inches wide, I can't cut a half circle. I'm cutting a quarter circle instead, with one edge on the fold.

The next design technique I used was the eyeball method. I eyed this pattern piece, drew in some lines, used the eraser a few times, and finally decided on the placement lines for all those little ruffles:

I'm off to sew together a little skirt!

Twirl-Drafting The Bodices

I have begun work on Twirl (the dress that keeps me awake at night) and the first step was to find an existing bodice pattern in size 2. This one rose to the top of the pile and I decided to start with it for several reasons.

One, it was an empire style bodice. Two, the bodice appears to fit fairly close to the body (I'll know for sure once I sew it up, since we all know that you cannot always rely on pattern drawings). Three, it has a little sleeve that should fit into the existing armhole. Although I'm not using sleeves on Twirl, if I can get this bodice drafted like I want it I have other plans that do involve sleeves.

So here we go.



Here are the bodice front and back in their original state. The pattern calls for a center back zipper, but I'm using buttons.



The first step is to trace off the original pattern and draw in the original cutting lines. I drew in the original center back seamline and I marked the straight grain of fabric. I measured the original side seams to see if they were the same length. They weren't. So I marked in the pattern correction for that. It is imperative that the side seams be equal in length. I used a brown marker, just for you!





Since I want to add small tucks to the bottom of the front bodice and I want to add gathers to the back bodice, I marked the center of each piece and drew in three slash lines one inch apart. I don't want to interfere with the armhole, so I ended the slashes just below the armhole.






Now I slashed the front bodice on the slash lines. I am not afraid. It's only paper. I pinned down the parts of the pattern that I don't want to move. Then I spread the slashes to add width for the tucks, taping down the adjustment as I worked:

You can see that this causes the pattern to crease. It's trying to tell me something.

It wants to be slashed. So I go along....

Then I let it flatten itself out again:

This changes the angle of the side seam. Since the fabric will be flat, the pattern must be flat, too. So I draw in the new side seam with a blue marker, and sketch in the seamlines with green:

The final step is to redraw the curve on the bottom of the bodice and lengthen the side seam back to its original length. Viola!


I followed the same procedure with the back bodice. The only difference here is that I added 5/8" to the center back cutting line to accomodate those cute little buttons I'm adding:

Here are the progress pictures for the back:

Now to cut this out of muslin and baste it together for a first fitting on The Princess.

Almost Done!

Stormy Night is almost done! It needs buttons sewn on, one snap at the neckline, the bias neck facing whipped down, and hemming! Hopefully I can knock this out tomorrow afternoon.









I've pretty much worked out all the drafting techniques to use for the twirly dress. My mind has been working on this one all week and I've made a whole page of notes to myself. So I guess really I've been working double time--working at the J-O-B and working mentally on the D-R-E-S-S.



One odd thing I've noticed is that I manage to solve most of my sewing problems at night while I sleep. For several days I've been trying to figure out one little detail on the twirly dress (the elastic on the back bodice) and I woke up about 2 a.m. this morning with the answer in my head. I promptly went back to sleep, but the solution is perfect. Many people think my mind is out of control (just ask my children), and I guess that can be a good thing sometimes. Has this ever happened to you? Or am I the only weird one?



At any rate, here's another piece of fabric from my little excursion on Monday. This will become a little dress, of course, but I'm undecided about which one:

I'm a sucker for sweet little flower prints. Speaking of which, I'm on the hunt for a black cotton print like this one, so if you've seen it available online anywhere, please leave me a comment.

I can't wait for the weekend!

Of Course, I Went Shopping

Yall knew I would, didn't you? And I had a great time, and some good luck. Why is it I always want to buy 50 yards of fabric? I didn't, though. Only fifteen yards. Honest.

I adore this one:



And this to go with it:



I've pretty much decided that I'm going to use this pattern, Natalie, by the Childrens Corner:





I'm planning on using the black dot for the fold back flaps on the back and the pockets, red piping, and red buttons. Any guesses as to what I'll name this dress?

Of course, there's more fabric lurking in those bags over there...and some patterns, too...and the latest issue of Australian Smocking....

I've done a bit more work on Stormy Night. The smocking is all done and I have the back closure ready for buttonholes. Then the neck binding, sleeve and side seams, hemming, and it's done!



I'm not particularly happy with the way this smocking pattern ends in the back. I may spinkle a few flower buds around, sort of random like. I'll be better able to tell when I get the buttons on it.

I'm anxious to get through with this one so I can draft out the little purple number. It is my intention to have it drafted and done in muslin by nightfall Friday night. If so, I'll head out to Joann's and grab me up some purple and orange fabric early Saturday morning.

Thanks to all who have left suggestions and hints as to how to finish off the bottom of the ruffly parts. You're a great help, and I'm glad you stop by!

Ideas Still Percolating

Okay, I still can't draw, and this time I even used a ruler. Sort of.

But anyway, here's my sketch of the skirt part of the dress I want to make. This represents half of the skirt--there will be two of these. For simplicity's sake, let's just call this the skirt front, shall we?

I started by drawing a half circle at the top. This is the part that will be sewn to the bodice. I will measure out the desired length and cut myself a piece of fabric.

The shell shapes (a complete shell in the center front, and two half shells shown for each side) are the sewing lines where I will attach the ruffles. The gathering foot for my machine will get a real workout on this one. The finished skirt will have four sets of shell ruffles (center front, center back, and one on each side).




Aren't you admiring the cute little flounce I drew on the bottom edge? That's the separate ruffle underlay shown in orange on the original dress. I haven't decided how to attach that piece yet.

The photo also shows a band applied to the bottom of the main skirt body. That's that thin little strip I drew right above the ruffle. I plan to cut a bias strip and essentially bind that bottom edge of the main skirt.

Yes, I know that means I will be sewing a bias strip to the bottom of a bias skirt, but what can I say? I just love me a good challenge!

If you have any ideas, or suggestions, please speak up! The only thing I love more than a challenge is a comment.

I'm off to smock some little sleeves.

Ideas Are Percolating

As usual, I couldn't sleep last night because I was thinking about dresses. By the upside to that is that I figured out how to do what I want to do. But first, this:








Oh, pleater, how I love thee.

Yes, friends, this is Stormy Night. The poor little thing has been languishing in the sewing room, waiting to get its little sleeves pleated. I couldn't seem to make up my mind what length I wanted the sleeves to be. After finally deciding on elbow length, I cut off the extra sleeve length and ran each sleeve through the pleater. Although I pleated five rows, I doubt I'll smock that many rows.



Today I'm concentrating on the bodice of the little dress I posted about yesterday. The front and back bodices are a little out of the ordinary. In an effort to make this easier to see, I enlarged the original photo and cropped away everything except the bodice. It may be a little fuzzy, but here goes nothing:






I hope it will be large when you click on it. I did try, honest.


At any rate, here goes Part One of my ideas for recreating this design:

• Use a standard bodice in size 2 from one of the major pattern companies. Not sure yet which one to use--I keep tripping over the darn things. I'll just grab one.
• Scoop out the front and back neck a bit for a more summery look.
• Make the front bodice long enough at the center front to accomodate three decorative buttons.
• Close the back bodice with three buttons.
• Add a little cap sleeve or a flutter sleeve. Maybe. More on this when the muslin stage gets here (yes, there is a muslin appearing here soon).
• Small tucks at the bottom edge of the front bodice.
• Back bodice appears to be gathered with elastic in the bodice/skirt seam. Or maybe it's tucked and gathered with elastic. Need to think about this one a bit more.
• I can't tell a thing about the sash, except that it's mighty cute. Trimmed with rosettes and buttons, maybe?
• Line both bodices
• Use stay tape on the bodice/skirt seam, because this puppy is going to be heavy when I put eight miles of ruffles on it

That's where I am right now. I think I have the skirt all worked out, too, but right now I'm off to smock a couple of little bitty sleeves.

Inspiration Number One

I went over to cook for She Who Is Pregnant With Twins (Chicken Pilaf, Green Beans, and Garlic Bread) and a mail-order catalog was just lying around, waiting for me to pick it up. So I did. And I found this:




This is a real cutie, and for $200 it should be. Silk. Dry clean only. Yeah, right.

Forget cooking. I'm busy trying to figure out how to make this for, oh, say, about $20. Three yards of cotton broadcloth (the good stuff) should be gracious plenty, six covered buttons, three spools of thread, and another yard of contrast fabric for that bottom ruffle. Okay, maybe $25.

I have a feeling this one will keep me awake all night. See what I mean about not getting enough sleep? It's always something.