FREE Shirred Denim Blouse Pattern And Tutorial

Today is a bit sad. It's the last day of school which means my kiddos are going to be going off to spend the summer with their dad (through no choice of my own). It also means that the next time school commences, my littlest one (the oops-I-have-another-kid....haha) will be starting Kindergarten. His brother would be starting junior high too, but alas, he was held back....

Other things have been growing and changing too in a bit more shocking ways. :/

I am helping to raise my grandson now. He's 2 1/2 months old. Everyone calls him chunky, fluffy, big for his age, and butterball. I think these strangers are nuts. I just see a tiny kid with one tiny, red curl on his head! I guess it's because my sister had a 9 pound baby and all of my kids minus two were much chunkier.

His mom is still nursing him (another reason for me not believing the kid could possibly be overweight). And, her "wardrobe" lacks much desire....at least to the elderly Catholic ladies at the mission the other day, to me, to my church, my husband, and most people over 30 in public. The only ones who do approve of her wardrobe are my preteen son (flies are beginning to collect in his gaping mouth....he really likes boobs no matter who they are attached too!), all males, sackers at the grocery store, and the mechanics at the oil changing place. :(

I informed her, much to her protesting, that as devoted members of the ultra-conservative, orthodox Church of Christ faith, she would be required to cover up at least when she is around us. She informed us that we were old hags. I reminded her that we aren't nearly as bad as my mom and sisters who are Mennonite or Amish. (I tease them so much, I am afraid they will bury me in one of their clothes....after all, dad was buried in a ugly ass suit mom hated).

To help her realize the concept of self respect while maintaining fashion forward sense, I made her a lovely blouse. And no, it's definitely NOT inspired by Amish Women Magazine. :P

You'll notice that even with a sway back and still having some baby weight, she looks pretty awesome and it flatters her quite well. I have a little experience with making clothing for large breasted women like my daughter by "abusing" the neighbor (who became my impromptu guinea pig! haha.). I find myself feeding her son on a regular basis so I guess she feels compelled to come to my creepy lair and get fitted for plus size women's clothing....boohahahahahha. :P

Armed with that valuable experience and her input on what would fit better, look better, etc., I sought out using my daughter for a new seamstress challenge: the impossibly tiny (she's 91 pounds!), freakishly short (she's 4"8...the exact same height as my 10 yr old), large breasted woman. My daughter had zero confidence she would like my blouse. :( Love you too kid.

I measured her bust (36 inches) and multiplied by two. That would give me extra yardage to shirr her blouse's bodice.(if you don't know how to shirr, I highly suggest you to watch this short video....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZtOqqyRZU8)

I also measured the length (vertical measurement) the bodice would need to be.
This meant measuring from armpit to the bottom-undergirth-of her breasts. As she is nursing,
I knew when her breasts are full the bodice would ride up. Many large breasted women, I've learned, find
this a problem too. Thus, I measured across her breast instead of the side portion from armpit to bottom of breast. 

The material I am using is heavyweight stretch denim. If you use lightweight material, which I highly recommend,
your bodice will shirr easier and more quickly and with less hassle. My "intended victim" would
be better covered with thicker material. :D

Here I am showing you the backside of the shirring process of the denim. My elastic thread kept breaking.
I am sure yours won't and everything will go smoothly for you! I also ensured that the bodice wouldn't
gape and boobies would fly out and knock someone out cold by putting a casing for 1/2 inch elastic around the top hem.
This turned out to be a great idea because young mommies bend over A LOT.

Another thing I want to mention is that if you put your iron on at the highest temp and press the steam option, hold the iron slightly above the fabric, the finished bodice that's now elasticized will bunch up and shrink like desired without any pulling of threads at the sides of the bodice or having to mess with the bodice's gathering. So easy and looks great too!

The measurement under her bust (the rib cage) is 29 inches which is incidentally mine too. Her hips measure 34 inches (which I think was my hip measurement when I was 10!). I folded over the denim fabric and drew a line with a fabric pencil that was 14 1/2 inches long.....the 29 inches cut in half as we are cutting on the fold. I wanted this blouse to be a little long (which is easy to do since my subject is the height of a 10 year old). From the bottom of her chest to her hip bone was 8 1/2 inches. So, I measured 8 1/2 inches down from that line I just drew. Cutting the hip measurement of 34 inches in half, I got 17 inches. I drew a line that long. I grabbed something straight (my son's art ruler in my case) and joined the two lines together. You see this somewhat triangular shape above if you look closely. I didn't pay attention to geometry in school but I think my son calls this a trapezoidal triangle. :P

I call this a somewhat Aline skirt piece!

 My model had a baby 9 weeks ago. So, I decided to practice on pleating with her outfit because pleats are figure flattering. (for pleating tutorials, you can watch this great video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSoFJUNclnE) You can't do this to a customer's outfit, not can you sell a "practice outfit". My former pleating practicing looked like deformed stretch marks on a morbidly obese person. :( However, these pleats turned out perfect....I was so stoked about it!

 If you can see past the blurry photos, you may be able to make out my center pleat (a total of 3 will be made.). The center pleat is 3/4 inches. The one on each side of the center pleat is 1/4 inches. The asymmetry would drive my mom bat-crap-crazy. But she's already gotten her Amish blouse from me with perfect sameness throughout. So, she will survive. I like things like pleats being different. It gives visual interest.

 Once pinned, I sewed down the sides of each pleat. You can see the pin still in position above.

 This is the shot before ironing and me basting the top edge of the skirt panel (right above the pleats).

After ironing and basting the top edge, here is the view from the wrong side of the fabric. Note how beautiful it is. Take a moment to admire my work. :D You don't have to baste your edge before attaching it to the bodice, but my 69 year old best friend who used to be a home ec teacher for 31 years says it makes your outfit look more professional. One needs to do the basting to armholes too before attaching set in sleeves.

 Grab your fabulous bodice and trim any crooked or extra fabric at the bottom before attaching it to the skirt panel. Having a straight edge makes attachment a breeze. Note my bodice has one seam and I want it to be in the back.

 Note how wonderful those pleats look with the attached attached bodice..... :P (this is the view from the backside)

Here my bodice and skirt panel (front side) has been serged/overlocked, top stitched, and ironed. I have no clue why the fabric looks gray. The denim is so dark in real life that my daughter thought it was black.

 I was so excited about my pleats and how this blouse was turning out, I forgot to take pics of the rest. I did take a few pics.....above is the 3/8 narrow bottom hem of the skirt. I was so happy with the hem I may ditch my usual 1/4 hemming I've gotten in the habit of doing!

I just ordered some lace from China. It came in convenient timing to use it on this blouse....though it wasn't the original plan to use it for this project.

 I also made tie straps for the shoulders. I knew my daughter would grimace (and she did!) at the straps but I wanted to be doubly sure this blouse stayed on her and didn't let us be shocked with more peekaboo scenes! I basically cut four strips of 3 inches by 8 inches and folded them in half and then half again, sewed them in contrasting white thread along the side edges and waalah! Tie straps were sewn to the bodice towards the sides for a more grown up feel.

I knew my tomboy daughter who likes to look like a vampire to boot wouldn't tie the straps in a bow like above. but we can dream can't we? Aren't they so cute?! +Squeal+

Do share your dress with me below. I'd love to see links to your lovely creations!

Not Safe For Church Dress Tutorial

I have lost over 40 pounds in the past 7 months as you may know if you follow my blog or journey elsewhere on the Internet (like Facebook). While exciting, it has brought up the issue of what to wear, as everything is waaaaaay too big to wear. I am a gifted seamstress, I'd like to think, but I can't really make "big people" clothes yet. I am taking baby steps right now with upcycling already made clothes. Still, these clothes are so ginormous I couldn't upcycle them to usable status for myself!

I was a bit over-confident one day and did leap into a dress from scratch using a blouse (that fits) as a template. It actually turned out alright. It actually didn't have 5 sleeves and make my cutie patooty husband barf (of course, he thinks everything I make is so awesome....too adorable).
This will be a picture-rich post, but I like sewing tutorials with lots of pictures and I would assume many novice sewers like me would agree.

I started off with some math. I didn't know when I was cursing my math teacher under my breath in jr high/high school that someday I would actually be using math to make myself some clothes! Oh well. That's why one has kids....to do the math for you (either that, get a calculator....hahaha).

My chest measurement is 36 inches (without "bra augmentation"). I knew this dress would require me to wear one of those flimsy bras that are a staple item for summer dresses, so I didn't take measurements with a fancy push up bra! Because this dress would be gathered around the neckline like a peasant dress, I added 10 inches to that measurement. I chose to do a front bodice/chest panel (rectangle shape) and a back one and join them on the sides. For some reason, this makes clothes fit better or be able to be altered later on if you screw up. Anyway, divide 46 inches by 2 (for the two rectangle bodice pieces) and you get 23 inches. I measured myself from my clavicle or shoulder bone to where my bra band ends. It is 7 inches (I didn't measure across my boobs but the flat part on the side).

If you are still following me, this means I need TWO rectangle pieces of 23 inches by 7 inches. I am using jersey knit. It's a medium weight....close to interlock weight, but still kinda see-thru, so I chose to line it. This meant I actually m ade FOUR panels of the aforementioned measurement. You don't have to line it. This was just my paranoid side coming out! Haha.

I also measured my width around my rib cage as this will be an empire waist dress. That measurement is 29 inches. I wanted the dress to hit my knee. The length from the bottom of my bra band to my knee is 27 inches. My hip measurement is 38 inches but I want this dress to be Aline and be flowy and drape loosely. Therefore, I added 3 inches....for a total of 41 inches in the hip. I am going to be cutting on the bias too for the entire dress. It eats up more fabric that way, but you want stretch so you can actually move and sit in the dress and not look like uncooked biscuit dough wrapped in Saran wrap! haha.

As you see in the above and below pictures, I whipped out my freezer paper (it makes very cheap pattern paper and lasts longer than tissue or flimsy paper!) and drew a line 29 inches across, measured 27 inches down, drew a second line 41 inches across, and then joined the two lines to make a Aline shape bottom skirt that will join with my bodice later on.

Clear as mud? Good.

Lace and sheer is all the rage right now. I am all for fashion but if you have had 6 children over the spans of 16 years, and you are almost 40, chances are you will bring mass mobs to vomit violently if you show too much skin (at least that's my experience). Thus, I am going to add a white lace panel of 3 inches long all the way around the bottom of my bodice in-between the bodice and skirt. This will show the area I actually don't have stretch marks, scars, and other undesirable signatures of unsavory life experiences! I think the rib area is like showing your arm....totally innocent and uncontroversial.
By adding the lace panel, I didn't need 3 inches of the length of my skirt, so I chopped off that part.

These are my two bodice panels (above). To make things easier for me, I just folded over the fabric that had the rectangle measurements so it would be lined. Again, you don't have to do that. :)

I scored a ton of baby lace that's stretchy/elastic-like from an online sale and even though it was meant for my shop, I decided it would look completely awesome on this dress.....and I have loads of it left so that's okay. I am highly allergic to everything so baby lace is a good choice since it's soft! By adding the baby lace along the top hem of my two bodice pieces, I was able to make a casing at the same time for the elastic I would eventually thread through to gather up the neckline. I love two in one sewing steps! My casing is only 1/2 inch....I didn't want a fat, bulky elastic band around my chest. Again, that would irritate my skin, even if enclosed in soft knit! I think that would terrible with lightweight fabric anyway.

 One thing I forgot to mention....ALWAYS use a ballpoint needle on knits and fabrics like silk, rayon, chiffon, etc. Otherwise your regular needle will tear up your pretty fabric. Also, don't be a forgetful dork and return the regular needle to your sewing machine after your project with the ballpoint needle. Other fabrics don't play nice with ballpoint needles. :(

Here are two bodice panels BEFORE elastic is thread through the casing. No, they are not sewn together, i just placed them on top of each other for the picture.

As I said before, my bodice panels are 46 inches wide. And, my empire waist (around my rib cage) is only 29 inches. Thus, I would need to gather my bodice panels at the bottom so they would be that 29 inches measurement (of course, give yourself a seam allowance!). That's what you see above....my gathering foot on my sewing machine is STELLAR. It made this step so fast and simple.

Above, you will see those "peek-a-boo" lace panels I am going to attach to my bodice pieces at the bottom. They measure 29 inches by 3 inches, as I said before.

 Right sides together, I attached the lace panels to the bodice pieces. I DIDN'T top stitch them yet. I will tell you why later. You are welcome to do it now if you like. By the way, the lace I am using isn't as soft as the baby lace, but it doesn't rash me out either. That's always good because no one wants to look like they have a contagious disease all over their trunk!

 This (blurry) picture is showing me threading the 1/2 inch elastic through the top hem of the bodice pieces. I chose to do it later so as to make sure the bodice pieces fit me like I wanted before troubling myself with elastic. I must have tried on this dress a million times before finishing it!

All done with the bodice! I even attached both pieces at the side seams (right sides together).

 Here's another shot of the bodice.....

...and a picture of my 4 1/2 year old who was disappointed I wasn't making something for him. Sorry buddy!

 ....maybe I will get around to making you some shorts.....you do need some in the worst way! (can you tell he has been riding his bike? Poor kid with his German genes gets so ruddy!)

 Here's the bodice attached the skirt panels....from the wrong side.

It's okay for the knit to roll up like that on the edges.....that means you have cut the fabric on the bias and it has lots of stretch and you did everything right!

In fact, many people leave their knit unhemmed because it rolling up is en vogue for many. This was intended or slated for church, so I made a more polished look with lettuce hemming....as you see above. Lettuce hemming looks so complicated but it's so easy! All you do is jack up the tension on your sewing machine (mine goes from -3 which is very loose tension, to auto which is normal tension, to +3 hyper-steroidal tension. I used +2) and put the stitch length a little higher or longer....however you see it. As you sew, which you do as usual..... back-stitching the first and last stitches too, pull on the knit fabric and it will look like lettuce.....and you don't want it to be like ruffles or gathers, just a flared edge.
I love contrast stitch color....but you may think it's ugly. Do as you wish on your dress. This is a simple dress for even novice seamstresses like me. In fact, this was my FIRST dress and I didn't even have a pattern. I just winged it!

UPDATE: After making the dress, I decided I didn't like the fit of the skirt portion. It fit and it was okay. But it was a little snug despite the stretch. If I were single, it would be hot. But I'm married. So it's not. :P
I chopped off half of the skirt portion where the dress (now more of a tunic!) would go to the bottom of my rear or would hit the bottom of my hips. I then added a generous lace panel that I ruffled and it looks more like a peplum top now. I then added a small lace bow from the same soft baby lace I used around the neckline.
Here's what that ended up looking like....thank you cute, adorable hubby for taking the pics!

As you can see, I also added split, draped sleeves for added modesty....it was simple really.....two rectangles of 16 inches  by 9 inches, attach them to the bodice (where my bra straps would be) with a three inch seam on both back and front bodice panels so I would have a lot of support....and then after that 3 inches, I cut the rectangles in half for the split. It allowed for an interesting drape effect!

I was informed by a few church members that this dress/top, even with the leggings, wasn't deemed appropriate for church. Oh well. Here's another shirt I made out of silk. I cut circles of the same fabric, burned the edges with a candle to seal the edges so it wouldn't unravel, layered the circles, and viola!  fluffy, lush flowers along the neckline!

I have a feeling that this blouse isn't safe for church either ;P

In unrelated news, I found an AWESOME website for some graphics one can put in their blog and online store. Chances are that you want to update your blog heading graphic...or your online store....but you are having trouble finding the right size one. Maybe you tried to make one on your own and darn! The picture/graphic looks wonky after being shrunk. Ugh. Well, this site has tons of cute stuff and graphics FOR FREE for your shop, website, whatever.
Check it out.....Sweetly Scrapped Art.....this is her store and she has a blog too!

Peasant Dress With Bustle: How I Did It

Peasant style dresses seem to dominate the Internet because they are so easy to make, are so versatile, and they can be altered with ease....even for the novice sewer. I made the one below with a bustle in the back. Here's how I did it!

I first got a simple peasant dress pattern....you can make one easily or you can hit the Internet and find one. I personally recommend this link for one (and it's free).

Basically you will follow the very simple instructions in making the dress with one exception. When you go to cutting the back piece of the dress (the dress only has two pieces, how simple is that?!), only make the top half of the back piece. That's because the bottom half of the back will become a bustle.

Some people get very creative and actually make the entire back half piece of the dress....then, they cut a sloping slit in the back....like this one, but this one is in the front, not back....

If you are an intermediate sewer, you can easily pull this off practically in the dark or with your eyes closed. Just get your pattern and slope two lines down the middle of the pattern piece!

If you aren't that creative or that experienced with sewing, you can do what I did.....somewhat like this dress:

I chose this route because I didn't want to mess around with pattern making....though I easily could have, and because this dress I made is meant for a small infant who will likely be laying on her back anyway the whole time and be more comfortable if her bustle isn't protruding out like some horrible tumorous growth! :P

The bottom half of my back piece is just lots of ruffles in soft, white lace. It compliments, but doesn't compete with, the gorgeous chiffon fabric in a sweet, pink, floral print. I then added 3/4 sleeves in the same soft lace.

this is the back....how cute!

The front....no ruffles but lots of details

If you want to see more of the dress, or get it for a knockout price, you can see it at my Etsy shop!


Finally, in an unrelated matter, I ran across another funny video from my favorite actor, Jim Carrey. He is impersonating Mr. Rogers, my favorite t.v show growing up. Mr. Rogers was the only celebrity who's death made me cry. I just LOVED Mr. Rogers! Here's the video....hope you get as great of a laugh as I did!