Sew Worthy

Target Maxi Dress Refashioning

I purchased this dress from Target with the intention to fix it up. I bought a medium which was a little bigger at the top but had the length that I loved! The size small was pretty tight and not as long. So even though I bought it at full price I know that it will be a piece that I will wear again and again!

Before Target Dress

Before

As you can see the top was a little baggy in the front and back. It also had a halter top and I really like regular straps. So I measured the straps and sewed them to the back. I also took it in an inch on both sides to tighten the back so it wasn't loose.

Measured distance between my bra straps and mirrored that

Took it in an inch on both sides

Afterwards it fit MUCH better and I felt very comfortable with the new straps. With the regular straps it looks more like a normal black dress instead of a casual beach dress.

Final

The other thing I recommend to EVERYONE no matter what size you are is to purchase a pair of Super Higher Power Spanx!! They make a huge difference and really help you feel more beautiful. It just pulls you in and smooths all our lovely curves particularly in the belly and butt area. It also helps you feel comfortable in your own skin no matter what your size. I think everyone that owns a maxi dress should own a pair of Spanx. If you live in Ames go buy them from Pure Bridal!

Final with Spanx

Since my dress is black its kind of hard to see but I felt amazing and super secure! If you need more persuasion check out the video here of before and afters. Its amazing the difference!

Happy Refashioning!
Colby

Simple Elastic Waistband Skirt

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Even though my title says "simple" this was my first elastic waistband skirt so I took my time and of course made a few little mistakes, but overall I'm pretty happy with the finished results!! I found the idea from a really cute blog here.

Material from Hancock Fabrics & black knit elastic

A detailed view of the fabric

You will want enough elastic to go around your waist. Measure around your waist and add about an inch for the seam allowance. Don't be afraid to pull the measuring tape tight around your waist. I measured to big and had to take in the elastic just a little. Remember that it will stretch so you can make it smaller. You don't want the skirt to be too loose.

Measure how long you need your elastic

Sew the elastic together and backstitch at both ends

Sew down each side to the band with a zig-zag type stitch

The finished band will look like this

Since I made the band too big I cut at the other side and did the same steps as above. It worked out for me to have two reference points on the sides later on.

Reference for each side

Then I cut the fabric. Which I hate the MOST about sewing. Love the sewing part and despise the cutting because I am not the best at making sure everything is perfect and equal. Since this skirt gets gathered at the top if you are off just a little with cutting you cant really tell. :) I made my skirt 17" long from the bottom of the elastic to above my knees and the skirt was a total of 84" wide. When you fold your fabric you can measure out 42" then you have one long piece that becomes 84". I had to fold the fabric differently and then cut the two pieces separately which ended up giving me two side seams instead of one. (hopefully that makes sense - or refer to the blog I found this from here cause she explains it better).

Serged the ends to look more professional & avoid unraveling

My side seams looked like this

Then my next step is probably backwards from most sewing projects. I went ahead and rolled the hem up since I have one long and easy piece of fabric to maneuver. You can also do this as your final step if you want to put it on and double check the length but I was pretty confident it was okay.

Rolled and pressed hem

Once you sew the sides together you have one large piece of fabric. This is when you will gather the top of your fabric. If you have a serger you can gather it that way, but I used the basic method of making a long basting stitch (don't backstitch the ends). Then you pull on one side of the string to gather the fabric. Even out the gathering as you pull.

Pulling on one side of the string to gather. You can do this at both ends

You can see the gathering all around

Pin the elastic to the skirt and that will also help you see where you need to alter or fix the gathering to make it the same width as your elastic.

Pinned to the waistband

Then you will sew the skirt to the waistband. The best way to do it is sewing from the "right" side of the elastic. That way you can be sure you sew a straight line all the way around. Sew two lines so that you know that skirt is secure to the band.

Right side of the skirt - pull pins as you go

Helps you keep a straight line and sew another line closer in

I love this skirt and I could see myself making another with a more cotton (easy to sew with) fabric. This fabric was a polyester/silk/chiffon type fabric. Here is the finished skirt!

Thanks for checking out my blog!
-Colby

BurdaStyle Chiffon Maxi Skirt

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So now that I've finished my 3rd project on my own I've really learned a lot! I found the cool BurdaStyle project here and her skirt looks way better than mine, but it was fun and interesting to work with the chiffon fabric. Also the instructions were FREE from BurdaStyle so it was really nice to have. Although I am more of a visual learner so reading the instructions at a few points was very confusing.

Here is what I've learned this project:
1) How to use iron-on interfacing.

I didn't look when I bought the package of iron-on interfacing (apparently I need to read packages before I buy them) because it was a thin weight and I was wanting something a little more stiff to give the waistband some structure.

I altered the skirt waistband a little because I wanted the final size to be 2" so I added the seam allowance on each side as well.

2) How to put in an invisible zipper.

Close up of how the zipper foot works! Its awesome!

It was very scary at first but I was able to watch a few videos from YouTube on how to put in an invisible zipper and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Once you watch the videos you really get the visual as to how its supposed to be completed which helps. I don't know what I would do without videos I find online. I LOVED the invisible zipper foot! I completely recommend using one if you are going to attempt to put in an invisible zipper into your garments.

3) That once you serge your side seams you CAN NOT let the seam out!

I thought everything was great because using the serger is so amazing! I got serge happy and went ahead and serged the side seams. Looking back I should have just used a baste stitch until I knew the size was correct by fitting it on myself or the Dress Form. The skirt turned out okay, but It got a little bunchy on the hips so I may just iron that down or tack it down to the lining so it isn't poofy.

Serging the lining to the chiffon fabric

Using my serger

4) How to stitch in the ditch.

You can see the white stitches a little but they are hidden nicely when worn.

I wish I could grasp how to finish the inside of the waistband to the skirt. I feel like there is an easier way to make the seam look finished but I'm not really sure what that is yet. I may have to do some more research. I just folded in the lining from the waistband and then from the front of the skirt I "stitched in the ditch".

This was the finished waistband from the inside, which in the long run really doesn't matter cause you cant see it, but I hope to get better as I progress.

Final skirt :)

My next project will be a jersey knit dress! Soon to come :)
-Colby

Next Project & New Items

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About a week ago I had a conversation with my husband via text that went something like this:
Husband - "Did you order something from Amazon?"
Me - "No. Why?"
Husband - "Cause there is a package here with your name on it and its pretty big."
Me - "What!! Weird. I wonder what it is?"

Who doesn't like mysterious packages?!? Turns out it was a new Brother Lock 1034D serger from my super amazing parents!!

My machine collection is now complete! A sewing machine and a serger. This will help me out a ton when working on the apparel that I create. It makes wonderful finishing stitches and cuts the fabric while you sew. As Jessica Simpson would say its a "twofer" (one item that has two uses) which she uses often on The Fashion Star show. :) In the past couple of days I've been able to play with it a little and watch some video tutorials on how to thread it and change other features. I wont lie...it was very scary at first to even know where to start with it. I went to JoAnns and grabbed some neutral white/grey threads to get started.

I've been testing out its special stitches and I've learned that you can actually use your serger to gather your fabric! No more creating two baste stitches and pulling on threads. It does it for you and I found an amazing youtube tutorial here on how to do it. So I've tested a few of my fabrics I have on hand to see how the different types of fabric react to the gathering. I tried both gathering (on the serger) and just creating regular pleats (on the sewing machine) on the chiffon fabric to see which one I like better for my skirt. I will probably stick with the gathering.

regular stitch (green fabric) & gathering on stretch material

gathering (left -serger) & regular pleats (right - on sewing machine)

I am also a lover of books!! I love the smell of books, the feel of holding a book, and how pretty the covers are...strange I know. Which means I don't have a Kindle and don't plan on getting one unless I'm forced to. If I had endless amounts of money I would have the library from Beauty and the Beast...maybe just on a little bit smaller scale. :)

Like I said in one of my previous posts I've been very overwhelmed lately with all the new fabric terms and types of fabric out there..Chiffon, Voile, Seersucker, Faille..it never ends and with me being a newbie to sewing this was really hard to grasp. This led me to do some detailed searching on a book that would come in handy. I initially wanted a book that had actual swatches in it so that I could touch and feel the fabric, but this is the next best thing. Its Fabrics A to Z: The Essential Guide to Choosing and Using Fabric for Sewing. One of the awesome things about the author of the book is that she also has a GREAT blog that I am following as well. Check it out here!

Next Project! Ok so its really very similar to the last project I did since its just another version of a maxi skirt, but I'm working with chiffon and giving it an inner lining. I found the inspiration from the BurdaStyle website here and I really wanted to find a coral colored chiffon but JoAnns didnt have any and most of what I can find online is too expensive for me so I found a fun bright blue print fabric instead.

chiffon fabric, lining, 12" invisible zipper, and iron on interfacing

One of the great things about this skirt from BurdaStyle is that you can download all the pattern instructions for FREE which to a Dutch wife is the best word ever. :) More to come on my project later.

-Colby

Maxi Skirt

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Here is my very first skirt creation. As with the rest of my "beginning" projects I am learning new things along the way. I found this stretchy polyester/spandex fabric from the clearance section at JoAnn Fabrics which I thought was pretty and a fun color. I am hoping to really step out of my box and find some fun and even brighter colored fabric for a later project.

sadly this picture doesn't do the colors justice

The hardest thing about this project was deciding how I wanted the waist to fit. I got the idea from this blog Here but of course my brain had to alter it in a few ways. For one I didnt want to attach a top to the skirt because I wanted to be able to wear the skirt with whatever top I wanted and any color. So I decided to make the skirt flowy by gathering the waist fabric just like the blog, but I wanted to attach the waistband and also use a zipper. The waistband was hard because I wanted it to be 2" (more of a wider style band) but I only cut the fabric and interfacing at EXACTLY 2" which means I didn't have the extra 5/8" seam allowance that I needed to attach it to my skirt which led to this happening once I folded the skirt over:

I obviously didn't have it big enough to then fold over and sew again. I have yet to sew the waist down to the front because I haven't decided if I want to sew it with the machine (because you would see that stitch from the front) or sew it by hand, which I could possibly hide the stitch in the middle layers of fabric so it wouldn't show from the front.

The other problem I came across was sewing with stretch fabric! Apparently there is a lot to learn about sewing with stretch fabrics. You need to have the correct ball point needle and you need to use the correct stitch on your sewing matching. The stitch is called a "stretch stitch" which looks like a zig-zag stitch. I looked in my sewing manual and it said which one was for stretch fabrics (thank goodness).

Finally once I had the zipper on (which wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be) I tried on the skirt and realized the zipper was sticking out and bunching in the back making a non-flattering look which is why I have no rear photos below...Haha! So I still have to figure out how I am going to get the zipper to lay flat, finish the waistband (take it in a little depending on where I want it to sit on my waist), and finish the bottom hem. I only did a quick baste stitch on the hem for my photos cause I have no patience. :)

Here are some final photos! Enjoy..