How to make a quick and easy apron dress for Dolls

Is your make-along doll underdressed and you’re pressed for time? With the risk of being captain obvious, here’s a quick photo tutorial for how to make a super cute, easy apron dress for your doll.

 

this blog post is from the wonderful weewonderfuls … check out her blog for more tutorials etc!!

Gembobs.

Knit Heart Dress Tutorial

Knit Heart Dress Tutorial

 

Materials:

• Ready to wear dress or shirt with sleeves
• Knit fabric
• Scrap woven fabric
• Scrap fabric for heart
• Heart template
• Stretch needle
• Coordinating thread

Step 1:

• Take your ready to wear dress and pin the sleeves inside the dress so you can easily see the curve of the arm hole. This will make it easier to cut the same shape with your fabric for your new dress.
• Fold your fabric making sure the stretch goes from left to right. Cut around the ready to wear dress leaving a 3/8″ seam allowance. Do this for the front of the dress as well as the back of the dress. Make sure your head opening is big enough to fit over your child’s head.

• Repeat for the sleeves

• Take your scrap fabric for your heart (making sure it is large enough to fit your heart template and an approximately 3/8″ seam allowance) and cut along the same angle as the dress
• You should now have a dress front and back, two sleeves and heart fabric

Step 2:

• Make sure you install your stretch needle and turn your machine to your “lightning bolt” stitch or stretch stitch. On my machine it is stitch #3

• With RST pin the shoulders and sew using a 3/8″ seam allowance
• Finish your seams with your serger (optional since the edges of knit fabric does not need finishing)

• Lay the dress front and back with right side up. Fold one of the sleeves in half and find the middle. Pin the middle of the sleeve to the shoulder seam with RST. Finish pinning the sleeve to the dress and sew. It is okay to slightly stretch the fabric in order for it to fit.
• Repeat with the other sleeve

Step 3:

• With RST pin the sleeve and dress front and back and sew
• Repeat on the other side
• With RST pin and sew the fabric for the heart

• Place your heart template on your fabric making sure you place it where you would like it to be sewn onto your dress. I wanted my heart just barely extending to the back of my dress so I have my side seam to the right side of my heart.
• Cut out your heart leaving approximately 3/8″ seam allowance

Step 4:

• Place your scrap woven fabric on top of the right side of your dress. Pin the heart template to the top layer of your dress only. Make sure you place your heart exactly where your cut out fabric heart will go. I folded the side of my heart template where the seam is on the fabric heart to make sure I lined up the seam of the heart with the seam of the dress perfectly.
• With a fabric pen trace around the heart template and sew on the line using a straight stitch. You could also leave your heart template pinned to your dress and sew just to the right of the template making sure not to sew the template to the dress. Make sure you are only sewing through one layer of the dress.

• Cut out the center of your heart making sure you don’t cut the back of your dress. Clip the corners and curves.

• pull the scrap fabric through the center of the heart and pin to the wrong side of the dress. Try your best to not stretch the fabric while pinning to keep the original shape of the heart. Sew the scrap fabric down using about a 1/4″ seam allowance.

• Cut the excess fabric off as close to the stitches as possible without cutting through the dress.

• Finish the edges on your heart with your serger or using a zig zap stitch. Place the heart over the heart opening and pin to the dress making sure to pin through only one layer of the dress. Turn the dress right side out and top stitch around the heart making sure not to stretch the heart as you go so it keeps its shape.

Step 5:

• Measure your neckline

• Cut a strip of your fabric the same length as your neckline and 1.5″ to make a neck binding. Make sure the stretch of the fabric goes from left to right.
• Fold in half RST so the short ends are together and sew.

• Find the middle of the back neckline and pin the seam from your neck binding you just cut out. Finish pinning all the way across the neckline. Sew using your “lightning bolt” stitch.

• Fold the neck binding under halfway and then fold under again and pin and sew.

• Your neckline should now look like this.

Step 6:

• Fold your hem up 1/2″ and then again another 1/2″ and sew.
• Repeat this process for both sleeves

• You are FINISHED!! Enjoy your adorable new dress! Wear it just as it is in the warmer months or pair it with some leggings in the cooler months. It also makes the PERFECT Valentine’s Day dress without being too over the top.

 

 

Tutorial from the amazing website www.mesewcrazy.com

Picnic Dress

Making a picnic dress

You will need 4 yards of 45″ fabric and an 18″ zipper.

These are the pieces of the pattern. Mark out the measurements listed and the distances between them. For example, on the waistband measure out the distance between your underbust/ribcage and your waist, then measure half your ribcage measurement at one side and half your waist measurement at the other. Then draw out the rest of the shape so it looks more or less like the pieces in the picture. If you aren’t used to making your own patterns it might be helpful to have a pattern for another dress to refer to, particularly for the sleeves.

  If you’re not used to making your own sleeves, trace both the arm hole and the top of the sleeve off a pattern you’ve used before and like. It’s tricky to get these curves right, and hard to move your arms if you get them wrong. I use gathered sleeves on this dress, which are a bit more forgiving. To change a regular set in sleeve to a gathered sleeve, simply make the top of the sleeve a bit larger without changing the arm hole. You will gather this extra, bringing the edge of the sleeve back to its original size.

To make the curve of the skirt even, use your tape measure like an enormous protractor. Pick a spot along the edge of the fabric to be the center of the skirt and draw a half circle by measuring a set distance (say 24 inches) from that point in every direction. This can go very quickly if you get someone else to hold the end of the tape measure in the middle. Make a smaller half circle around the same point for the waistline. The size of this inner circle will depend on your size, but should be something on the order of 5 inches.

 

To gather the top, mark out a distance ¾ of the difference between bust and underbust measurement on one side. Stitch along the edge of the fabric between these marks. Tie the threads together at one end. Pull slowly on one thread at the other end, gathering the fabric as you pull. When the gathered section is ⅓ of the length it began, tie the ends together. Repeat on the other side. Edit: if you still find this confusing, I’ve written more about it here http://www.oneaviandaemon.com/?p=863

After gathering both the lining and the top layer of the bodice, sew them together along the neckline. Turn right side out and press. Even out the gathers and make sure none of the edge bits are folded in, then sew both pieces of the bodice to the waist band, being careful with the gathered sections.

 

Sew the edge of the facing to the neckline on each back piece. Turn and press. Turn in the edge of the facing and sew this edge to the back.

Sew the front and back together at the shoulders. Gather the center of each sleeve. Sew the sleeves into the armholes.

Baste the ties to the waist band, then sew the front and back together along the side. The waistband will be sewn into this seam. Sew up the underside of the sleeve. Turn under the edge of the sleeve and sew it down.

Sew in the pockets if you’re including them (for more detailed directions, see here). Sew up the sides (but not the back) of the skirt, and sew the skirt to the top. Put in the zipper, then sew up the back of the skirt.

Turn under ½ inch all along the bottom of the skirt, then another 2 ½ inches. Hem along this edge, taking the smallest stitches you can out of the skirt.

If there’s anything you’d like to know that I’ve skipped or explained badly, please ask about it!

 

From – http://www.oneaviandaemon.com 

How to turn up a dress quickly

This is my little sister dress her mum bought for her the other day but it is very long, and long dresses are not good for small children! Lots of tripping over involved. So i turned it up for her. So here is a simple demonstration on how to do it. 🙂

Step 1: Decide on what length you would like the dress to be and cut the remainder of the fabric off. I use crimping scissors to make sure the fabric doesn’t fray.

(Keep the leftover fabric, i used this to make a little headband to match the dress using elastic)

Step 2:Turn the rim up and press. Make sure it has the same thickness all the way along.

Step 3: Repeat the same process as before,

Pin the fabric in place once pressed so it doesn’t move whilst sewing!!

Step 4: Sew all the way along making sure its straight. Easy peasy!! Your probably didn’t need a tutorial but hey.. i thought i’d do one anyway!!

🙂 Happy Sewing!!

 

 

Scarf Dress modelled by Amy Watters

Hey! Just made this dress out of a scarf from a charity shop and an old top which was too small for me!

My younger sister kindly modelled for me 🙂 Thank you!!

Here are some shots i took of her in the dress…

Close up of the dress and belt

So overall this dress cost £3.00 to make, so not bad really. 🙂

 

 

 

First dress i made

Hey!

Ive decided to do something really difficult(in my opinion) and make something wearable…

A dress!! I thought id start small and make my little sister a dress so i looked up patterns on the internet and came accross a halter neck dress that looked really cute. So heres how i did it….

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1F4fli7PB6WYTVmMTM5YmYtNmI5My00YTQzLWIxYjYtNjgwZmNiNGRmZjg4/edit

I first printed off the template from the link above^^^^^ and sellotaped it all together so that the X joined together.

First, Fold your piece of fabric in half and line up the pattern on the fold (as marked) with the top x at the top of the fabric, like so. Trace it, then repeat again moving your pattern downwards so that they are directly above and below each other. 

After you have traced both patterns, cut them out.

 

 

Then use the scraps leftover to trace the straps. Leave a little just below the x for your seam allowance. Pile the two scraps on top of each other and trace twice, so you get four straps, like this:

 

Now take your two bodice pieces and lay them right side up. Pin a strap to each side of each piece, right side down:

Sew them in place with a straight stitch. Then trim your threads and iron the seams open:

Now take one complete bodice piece and lay it right side up. Lay the other piece right side down on top, so right sides are facing. Pin all the way around the entire thing except the bottom edge. Sew all the way around the top of the bodice and straps with a straight stitch, and leave the bottom flat edge unsewn:

Now its time to turn it inside out. Turning the straps inside out is very hard to do, i use scissors that are together and try push the fabric up.(Be careful not to put a hole in the fabric though) Push the seams out and iron flat.Then iron the bottom unfinished edge under about 1/2″ all the way around.

 

You also need the skirt portion of the dress. That is just a big rectangle. Use the width of your fabric metre ( 44″ or so – doesn’t have to be specific) and cut it the length you want your dress plus one inch. I cut mine 15″ for my 1 and a half year old.

Now take your rectangle of fabric and finish each short side edge by folding to the wrong side 1/4″ and ironing, then another 1/2″ and ironing, then sewing in place with a straight stitch:

Take the bottom edge of your fabric panel and finish it by folding to the wrong side 1/4″ and ironing, then another 1/2″ and ironing, then sewing in place with a straight stitch. Now along the top unfinished edge of the panel sew a basting stitch. Make sure you pull a long length of thread out of the machine before you start. To sew a basting stitch, use a straight stitch set to the widest width your machine will allow, usually a 5. Baste all the way across, then leave a long length of thread at the end:

Open your bodice and lay it out flat. Pull the bobbin thread on your basting stitch to gather the fabric until the skirt panel is the length of your bodice

Snip the corners at the top of your skirt panel at an angle (so they will fit into the bodice):

Choose which side of your bodice is going to be the front (the side that will be away from the kid’s body and show) and lay that side up. Lay the skirt right side up as well. Fit the skirt into the bodice and pin. Make sure the gathers are evenly spaced and use lots of pins, it helps with sewing it all in place. Double check that your basting line is not showing, that it’s nicely pinned inside the bodice.

Sew straight across the bodice at the edge to secure your skirt in place:

Now is the time to try it on your wearer if you can, to mark where your fasteners will go. The fasteners can either be buttons, snaps, velcro.. what ever you choose or have available!! It really is up to you. I used snaps so i can adjust them as Millie grows 🙂

 

And there you have it! My first ever dress!! Only took a day to do!