Simplicity Cynthia Rowley Sew Along - Prep

Welcome!  This is my first sew along so hang in there and point it out if I skip something or it's confusing.  I highly recommend reading over my directions and pictures before you actually start sewing each week's section just to be sure I didn't mess up or confuse you :).

So here's what you'll need:

Simplicity 1873 by Cynthia Rowley in the correct size.  It comes in 6-12 and 14-22.

Fabric of your choice.  The amount is on the back of the envelope based on your size.

Pick your dress view and size.  You'll notice under the dress there's a 45" and 60" option.  This is the width of the fabric.  It'll be printed on the end of the bolt where the price is.  If you can't find it, ask the person cutting your fabric :).

Let's measure.  Measure the fullest part of your bust, the smallest part of your waist (above your belly button - where you see the center of the hourglass) and over your hip bones.  Hip measurement really isn't important in this pattern though.  

Make sure the tape is comfortable around you.  Don't pull it super tight, that's not an accurate measurement.  Give yourself room to slide a couple of fingers between the tape and your body. The general rule is if you have bulging on either side of the tape, it's too tight!

That's it.  Find your fabric, buy your pattern.  Then come back here and post pictures of your fabric and what dress you're going to make.  Fun!

I've picked a basic aqua Kona cotton.  If this is your first dress, I would suggest picking a plain fabric or one with an all over print that doesn't need to be matched.  Stripes, plaids, etc., will be more difficult.

Happy shopping!!

Anna Coronation Dress Tutorial

So here's the dress to recreate.

I'm using my standard pattern that I always use.  Simplicity 2817.

The biggest problem when adapting a pattern is figuring out how much fabric you'll need; especially with a pattern that always overestimates yardage.  Here's what I bought.

Hunter lining (for underskirt, bodice lining and sleeves

-2.25 (I had about half left)

Black velveteen (bodice and straps)

-.50 (almost half left, enough for another bodice)

Home decor Soraia Mist (over skirt)

- 25"/.70 (id number if you want it - 400060961929) (using all)

1 package double fold gold metallic bias tape

1 package single fold gold metallic bias tape

So first things first.  Cut your pattern. Measure your child first as pattern sizes I find run large.  My girls are on the small side.  Here is my altered version of the bodice front piece.

Altered back.  Start at the underarm seam and cut straight across so you have a large rectangle.

Now pin and cut your fabric.  Use the triangle marks on the top pieces, but don't bother with the skirt, they won't line up.  

Bodice:

1 bodice front in black on fold

2 bodice back pieces in black

1 bodice front in lining on fold

2 bodice back pieces in lining

I don't like having a front seam.  I cut the bodice front on a fold.  You need to compensate for the seam allowance that would normally be there so slide the pattern so it overhangs the fold 5/8".  If you don't, your bodice will be 5/8" larger than it's supposed to.

Do this for bodice and lining front.

For the skirt, cut one front piece on the fold and one side back and front (piece 10) instead of two.  Don't cut it on the fold.  

Now the over skirt.  I decided to cut it into strips like this.

I ended up with 7 large strips, with 7 or 8 skinny strips left that were in the middle.  Now I need to serge them.  I don't have a serger.  I experimented with a couple different stitches and stitch sizes on a scrap piece.

I liked 16 with a tighter and shorter stitch.

 

Start sewing up the sides.  Start with your needle in the down position, then slide your fabric over until it hits the needle.  That's the perfect position.

Right side done, left still unfinished.

Now that all your prep is done, it's time to start construction in the next post.

Frozen Dress Overload

So if you're daughter is anything like mine, she's obsessed with Frozen.  Both of my daughters love it, but the youngest is obsessed.  When the movie came out, I knew it was going to happen.  It's happened with Princess and the Frog, Tangled, and Brave.  What followed was mommy making a matching princess dress.  When I saw Frozen, my heart sank looking at the costumes.  Trying to do the embroidery, find the elaborate fabrics, it was going to be a nightmare.

In December I started asking Emmeline if she wanted an Elsa dress for our trip at the end of January.  She waffled.  Finally 2 weeks before I gave her the final deadline.  She looked at me and said very nonchalantly "nah, I'll just buy one there."  Yep, no big, $70 dress.  Alice didn't care either way as long as she got an Anna dress.  Luckily we had enough rewards on our Disney visa to cover them.  First order of business upon arrival in Magic Kingdom?  Buying dresses. We went straight to castle couture and were told by a very sweet lady, who I'm sure was asked thousands of times a day, that they had none and weren't anticipating another shipment for at least a month.  Checked at BBB.  For the first trip in about 3 years, we didn't make an appointment.  We were afraid that since Alice was so close to 3 and would know what was going on that it wasn't fair to her.  BBB lady tells us that they have some on some days but not others AND she couldn't sell me one without an appointment.  Sad girls.  Luckily (?) we were sick for most of the trip, so that took their minds off the disappointment.  

When we got home, I made Emmeline an Elsa dress for king/queen day at school in less than 24 hours because I forgot!  

Not my best work.  Seams are already splitting because I used an already cut size 3 and didn't notice until it was too late.  I just sewed with a small seam allowance.

I have since sewn another one with the same pattern, McCall's 5499 for my great niece (I swear I'm only 31!).  Basically I cut the pattern pieces in half at the waistline (make very sure they're even!) and used a sheer for the top with the sequin pieces over it and used a different fabric for the skirt.  I was super bummed that I couldn't find the snowflake fabric again for dress number 2, but other than that I think it was more successful than the first.

Here's my gorgeous great niece in her dress:

I've added Anna's traveling dress (pics soon) for my great niece.  My husbands nephew is the same age as us, our kids are the same age.  I made her a couple dresses around Halloween for their Disney trip.  When my niece (feels so odd to say that) asked me to make Anna and Elsa for her daughters birthday I hesitated because of the designs on the bodice, etc.  I finally volunteered after initially saying no if she would do the designs.  She's a genius btw.  Iron on.

Here she is in Anna's traveling dress (the gorgeous artwork was done by my niece and painted on.

A picture of my daughter modeling it without all the pretty painting.

So now Anna's coronation dress didn't seem so daunting.  I bought some light green striped fabric at Joann's and a decorative ribbon that I was going to see to every other stripe.  It was the most viable option I could find until I wandered into the home decor fabrics at the big Joann's 45 min away (we have a tiny one in town).  There it was, the perfect fabric.

Not perfectly perfect, the green and beige are reversed, but close enough.  I have 10 days until Alice's birthday.  Time to get sewing.

Tutorial will be in its own post so you have to read all this drivel to get to it :).

Disney dream navigator

Night 2 navigator

The house

Fireplace

Stairs

Oddly textured brick

Moulding

Exterior 

"Alice" Dress tutorial

Alright I'm going to try this again.  I got about half way through, went to delete a picture and ooops!  I deleted everything!

So I've been hesitating to do a tutorial for the dress because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to properly explain how to make the yolk.  However, I know Nicole Cleveland is dying for the tutorial so here it is.

What you'll need for a 2T:

1/2 yard of fabric (I chose pre-pleaded pink - part of my 17 yards @ $35 from Joann's)

1/2 yard of fabric for yolk and lining

Sturdy scrap paper.  I usually use junk mail 

1 package piping

3 buttons

An appropriately sized dress for pattern making.  You can do it without!  I'll add another part on how if anyone wants me to.

Coordinating thread

Here we go:

Dress

Fold your fabric in half, right sides together, so that your pattern runs the correct way for your dress.  Ie.  I had pleats that would have looked silly horizontal.

Fold your dress in half vertically.  Put it 1/2" or 5/8" from the bottom of your fabric (this is your seam allowance) and line up the folds.  Like this:

You choose whether you want 1/2" seam allowance or 5/8".  Trace around your dress (except the neck - stop at shoulders) adding your seam allowance on all sides.  

When you get to the neck, mark where you want the bottom of the scoops in the front to be.  Mark the top of the shoulder.  Take away the dress.  Draw a scoop from the top to the bottom mark.  Cut.

 

You can see my lines are rough and in pen.  It's fine, you won't see that part.  So if you draw it and don't like it, don't worry. 

Now with the remaining fabric still folded together, put your folded dress back on it.  The "pattern" doesn't have to be on the fold again.  Trace again the same way, leaving your seam allowance.  This time you can just trace the neck too.  This will be the back.  

Now do the same steps with the lining fabric.  This time use your pieces as the pattern to make sure they're identical.

The yolk

Grab your junk mail.  Fold it in half.  Trace the front neck scoop and shoulders onto the paper.  I did it by feeling the edge of the fabric.  You can lay the paper on the bottom and just trace.

Cut that part out.  With your paper still folded, lay it on your dress front.  Draw what you'd like your yolk to look like.  It took me 4 passes to get it right and still more trimming after that.  Cut it out.  Lay the whole thing on and look.  Fold and trim as needed.

Now lay your front yolk on the fabric.  Leave a 1/2" or 5/8" - whatever you picked for the dress - seam allowance.  Just be consistent or you'll never remember.  Maybe you will, I never do though!  Things get wonky if you're off in your measurements.  Cut.

Back yolk

No paper folding this time.  Just a single piece.  Trace the top line and shoulder of the fabric like you did before.  To determine the width of the top shoulder, line up your front yolk, mark.  Now draw how you'd like the back to look.

This is how mine looks:

Once you have your shape, pin on your doubled fabric.  

Trace (don't forget your seam allowance!).  Cut.  Do it again.

Yolk assembly

You should have 2 front yolk pieces and 4 back.  Pin the front sections, right sides together.  Pin the back pieces.  You should have 6 pieces pinned to 3.

Pinning the front.  *** If you're doing piping, it's easiest to do it now.  I didn't decided to do it until after this step.  Pin the piping with the pretty side (the cylinder part) facing in between, like its the meat of your sandwich.  Line up the flat edge with the edge of your fabric.***. Only add it on the lower edges.

You can choose to do it the way I did if you like.  The piping will be different from the pictures if you do the above way.

Sew front piece leaving top scoop section open.

Sew small pieces together leaving short ends open.  Add and pin piping as described for front yolk.  Sandwiched between the two right sides of your fabric.

Top is the turned piece with small edge open.  Bottom is the sewed piece before being turned.

If your small end is too small to turn, leave the wider end, the part that lines up with the center back seam where the dress will close.  Turn all pieces out.

Iron if you're not too lazy like me.

Pin each small section to front yolk at shoulder, right sides together.  Sew.  Use correct seam allowance.

Set aside.

The dress lining

Start with the lining if you're nervous, that way if you have to rip a seam or make a mistake, you won't see it on the outside.

Line up, right sides together, the edge of the front piece (the one cut on the fold) and the shorter side of the back piece.  Pin.

Sew with correct seam allowance.  Double stitching wouldn't hurt.  I usually do on clothing seams.  Stitch directly over it or right next to it inside the seam allowance.

Do the same for the other side.

Stitch (double) front and back together at shoulders.  Seam allowance.  Is that getting annoying yet?

The dress

Follow the same exact steps as above.  The back will be open. 

Now if you're following me exactly and want to do this the harder way, here it is.

Pin the piping, cylindrical side out.  The tape portion should be hidden underneath the yolk. 

I toyed with the idea of this yellow trim because by the time I decided I wanted trim, I had already sewed the yolk together making my red piping difficult.  The yellow was shot down by 2/3 friends so I decided to fudge the red piping.

Once it's pinned, sew it in place with your zipper foot on.

Zipper foot on the left.  You don't have to, but it makes the different heights of the material easier to handle.

Sew as close to the edge as possible.

Pin the yolk to the dress front matching centers and shoulder seams. 

Notice how it doesn't line up perfectly?  It's ok.  Trim as needed, but a little overhang is fine.  It'll end up hidden.  Just be sure to measure on right and left back pieces to make sure your back yolk sections hit at the same spot so they line up.

Stitch 1/4" in at the top.  On the outsides stitch along the same line you used for the piping.

Arm piping

So remember how the piping was an afterthought for me?  It was on the arms too.  The easiest way will be outlined below, then I'll show you how I did it.

Lining and dress together.  Forever.

Pin, right sides together, neck and back center sides.  Sew.  Leave hem open.  If you don't want to put piping on the arms, you can sew the arm holes, right sides together, too.  Sew.

Arm piping.  For reals this time.

With the dress and lining still stitched and facing right sides together, measure the arm holes.  Add 1" on that measurement.  Cut 2 pieces of piping.  

Starting at the  underarm, slide each in between the arm hole layers with the piping section inside the layers.  The tape part should line up with the end of your fabric.  Pin all the way around.  

A zipper foot comes in handy here too.  Baste (long stitches - I set mine to 4.5 from 2.5) as close to the piping as possible without going over it.  Be careful when turning little arm holes to the next part, make sure your layers stay put and don't slide around.  Also, be careful not to catch the other side of your sleeve in the stitches and sew it closed.  I've done it many times.  

Now, check to make sure it looks right.  You can turn it to check.  If it does, set your stitch back to normal and stitch over your line.  If it doesn't, no worries, basting stitches are easy to pull.  Pull out just the area you messed up and try again, remember to back stitch a few times over the old stitches so they don't come out.

When both arms are done, turn the whole garment.  Just the bottom hem should be open.  

My way

After you sew the layers together (leaving arm holes open), turn the dress.  Baste the arm holes closed as close to the edge as possible.

Now grab your piping,measure, add an extra 1", cut.  Start in the underarm but give yourself 1/2" of slack at the end.  Fold  1/4" under and pin it to the tape.

My finish point looked like this.  I curved both sides down.

Outside 

Inside 

Now stitch.  Again, it's best to baste first.  If everything is good, stitch over your baste lines.  Trim excess piping, but not too close to the stitch line or it will look like this:

My solution was to get some red thread and hand stitch around it.  Taking it apart and starting over would have been the correct thing to do....

After...not too bad:

The second armhole:

Hem

Pin and baste the bottom layers together.  Baste 1/4" in.  Now turn it under another 1/4"-1/2" (or however long/short you need it).  Pin.  Stitch.

You're almost done!!!!!

Now your dress is still a big strip basically.  Take your back pieces and line them up, right sides together.  Mark about 2/3 or 3/4 up from the bottom.  Sew from there to the hem.

Buttons

Get out your button foot.  Pick which button hole you'd like and sew.  (Or do it by hand).  Cut it open.  Line it up to see and mark where your button should go.  Hand sew your button on.  I did mine right at the top.  It has a gap but it doesn't bother me.  The hubs wanted me to put another button or two.

If you don't have a button hole foot, or any idea how to sew one by hand (who does??), you can hand sew a hook and eye or two or some snaps.  Either will work!  Those two are all very self explanatory.

Front finishing

Measure and mark where you want your buttons.  The only ones I had were big so I chose two.  For smaller buttons you might do 3-4.  Hand sew them on.

Done!!