Jingle Bell Dress Tutorial

 As promised here is the tutorial on how I sewed this Jingle Bell Dress.

I dug this 2 piece bridesmaid dress from Watters and Watters out of my closet. I didn't use the top, just the full a-line skirt which is made of Dupioni silk, it's size small & fully lined.

To make the Jingle Bell Dress, follow this free pattern & tutorial, the dress features a trapezoid center bodice shape with double breasted button closure.

 I cut out the dress pieces according to these diagrams I drew.

 The dress pattern is in size 2/3 & I needed size 4/5, so I drafted my own pattern. I did drop the waist down a bit so there was room to add a cumber bund, so do add a couple of inches to the bottom of the bodice.

 After sewing the bodice together...

 I placed the trapezoid shaped bodice piece on top.

 By hand I sewed on 15 tiny silver jingle bells down each of the 2 sides of the trapezoid piece.

 I made the Jingle Bell Dress sleeveless & covered the raw edges by sewing on bias tape. I cut 1 inch strips from the leftover fabric...

 then used a 1/2 inch bias tape maker & an iron to make the bias tape. Then I sewed the bias tape around the raw edges of the arm holes.

 When attaching the skirt to the bodice I put 3 inverted pleats in the front & made it gathered in the back. The gathering method I used was zigzag over cording, but you can use your preferred gathering method.

 The same technique was used to make both the head band & cumber bund which is...

 Sew right sides together (I used 1/4 inch seam allowance). Turn right side out, I used a smoothie straw & a chopstick as my turning tools.

 Press with iron.

 Sew on the sequin trim.

 The finished head band:
20 inches long & 1.25 inches of .75 inch elastic were used.

 The finished cumber bund:
24 inches long & 1.5 inches wide, 1.5 inches of velcro were used.

So how much did this cost to make?
$3.99 !!!
It was $3.99 for 1 1/3 yards of silver sequin trim (there are a few inches leftover), long silver skirt was from my closet (skirt & top (a gift) were bought on consignment for $14 (that's what the price tag read), only the skirt was used for this project, so I still have the top for a future project), 30 tiny silver jingle bells were from my stash as well as the elastic for the head band. Oh, I guess I forgot to add the cost of the 1.5 inches of velcro whatever that small amount would be...

So although this dress might look expensive, it actually didn't cost that much to produce, yeah !   Gotta love that :)

Also one last note, about the hair, to achieve this look we did sock bun curls.

PS Many thanks to the Project Run & Play sew along judges who picked my Jingle Bell Dress as the winner for week 1 :)

Dorothy Junior

 {The Wizard of Oz}

I'd been wanting to sew my daughter a Dorothy costume for awhile. Having her big brother perform in the Wizard of Oz musical was the final push that forced a deadline.... I finished sewing the dress an hour & a half before we were off to see The Wizard of Oz musical. While we were there my daughter got lots of attention... people weren't expecting a little Dorothy to come see the show. Now she has a fun costume, so she can play Dorothy whenever she wants.

 I used the Simplicity 4139 pattern. If you're interested in sewing a simple Dorothy costume, try this one. I also think the All-Ages Classic Jumper (which goes up to size 5T) from One Yard Wonders book could be easily made into a Dorothy-like costume.

And here's Dorothy dressed up as the lion !

I will share that this dress wasn't the most money saving project with $16 for the materials + $6 for the pattern = $22 total... although there's some fabric scraps left, a lot of blue rick rack left, & I can reuse the sewing pattern again. The zipper was from my stash. I found it kind of ironic that it cost that much for such a simple looking dress.

3 Lullaby League Skirts

 {The Wizard of Oz}

Next up for the Wizard of Oz costumes were 3 lullaby league skirts... the choreographer wanted 3 flower skirts meaning circle skirts with a scalloped hem, this was for 3 different sized teenage girls which was a new experience for me since I usually only sew for my 4 year old daughter. The choreographer wanted red, orange & blue (primary color) skirts and all the materials had to be as inexpensive as possible due to the tight budget since there were 100s of costumes just for this one production.

The 3 lullaby league girls wore bright green leggings (so their legs were the stem of the flower) & bright yellow t-shirt (pollen of the flower). I decided to dye the wide elastic yellow (following this how to), giving the option of tucking in the yellow t-shirt which turned out to be a good idea because they did end up tucking in the shirt.

 For the circle skirt I followed this tutorial, but here are some other things I found helpful.

 This isn't an exhaustive tutorial, there are many great scalloped hem tutorials out there, I used this one. So I won't go into too much detail & let the photos show how I did it, but I'll just mention a couple things. The most time consuming part was the scalloped hem, especially all the clipping around the curves before turning them right side out. One thing I did was add a little piece of Peel 'n Stick (I love that stuff, it's my new best friend) to every other scallop to secure it & looking back I wish I would have added one to every scallop. Every other scallop drooped down, I'm sure no one else noticed, but I did.

It was fun to sit in the audience & watch 'my' flower skirts performing on stage, even if they were only on stage for for the Munchkinland part of The Wizard of Oz musical :)

See you tomorrow for one last Wizard of Oz costume...

Mayor of Munchkinland

 {The Wizard of Oz}

Or maybe the title of this blog post should be 'how not to change the color of a brown top hat'... last month my oldest son performed in The Wizard of Oz musical. He was the mayor of Munchkinland as well as a couple of other characters. I had the opportunity to help out with costumes (sew & go shopping) which was a fun experience for me...

So he was in need of a large blue bow tie (what he's wearing in the above photo ~ I followed this tutorial) and a blue top hat... did you know that the Munchkin's favorite color is blue? I didn't.

 I bought this brown top hat & some blue fabric spray paint, thinking it would be a really quick & easy project to change the color of the hat from brown to blue, BUT the hat is a dark color (brown) & made of polyester & you're suppose to use the fabric spray paint on light colored cotton. With the results not being good, I had to come up with Plan B which was to cover it in the same blue fabric as the bow tie. I cut out some simple shapes & started sewing the fabric together while it was still on the hat !   It's like a slipcover for a hat, but not removable.
(sorry for the bad quality photos ~ I was working on this at night & had to use flash)

In the end it worked out, a nice bright blue hat that showed up well on stage, I think the Munchkins were happy with their mayor :)

See you tomorrow for more Wizard of Oz costumes...

Junebug Dress Pattern Remix

 UPDATED TO ADD: Jingle Bell Dress Tutorial is here
*****
 Project Run & Play Season 3 is going on right now & this season there is a sew along!
The first week's challenge is the "I wish it was June, Bug" Dress or the Junebug Dress pattern remix... use this free pattern & make it your own...
Since it's January maybe I should rename this dress the "I wish it was January, Bug" Dress?
Anyway, the dress pattern was in size 2/3 & I needed size 4/5, so this was my first time drafting a pattern (I enjoyed the challenge & the experience).

Features (or how I made it my own):
:: repurposed a long (42 inch) silver dupioni silk skirt (label read 100% acetate, but I think that's just the lining) for the fabric
:: fully lined
:: kept the original invisible zipper from the back of the skirt for the back of the bodice, so I didn't need the button closures in the front
:: sewed on by hand 30 tiny silver jingle bells along the left & right edges of the front bodice flap detail
:: inverted pleats in the front, gathered in the back
:: dropped the waist down a bit
:: added a silver sequin removable cumber bund and made a matching silver sequin headband
:: sleeveless bodice (where I made my own bias tape from the leftover fabric)

 Oh, to have that skinny waist !

Tutorial on how to make this dress (with cumber bund & headband) coming soon :)

 Check out all the Junebug Dress sew along contest entries in the Project Run&Play flickr group.

The second week's challenge: Boys' Week