Purple Jersey Twirl

See, I told you I would be back.

A few weeks after school started for DD, the note came home that...dun dun dun...School Picture Day was coming. Ack! A quick perusal of her closet showed me what I already knew--she had nothing just right. Soooo, of course a late night/early morning sewing spree followed, and voila, problem solved.

[But not, it must be said, without much eye-rolling from my husband ("Why do you always DO this to yourself?? You ARE crazy, you know that?" I know. I am a beyond batty sewing lady. It's okay.)]

Fabric: Lycra-blend jersey print. I think it has at least some synthetic in it, since it didn't want to iron very well, but it is very lightweight, drapey, and comfortable. I believe it is a boutique overrun from either Plum Pudding or Baby Lulu. I got it online quite a while back for myself, but it just seemed to fit for this project so I gave it up to DD. :)

Pattern: None, really. A few weeks ago I had DD go through the Mini Boden catalog and circle all the things she liked, for inspiration. One of the items she circled was this dress, so I used my go-to puffed sleeve t-shirt pattern (Ottobre 1/2007 #18) and figured the rest out. I didn't have any solid colored jersey with the right hand for it, so I went with this print from my stash. I think it worked out perfectly.

The inspiration dress had this little loop detail in the back, so I swallowed my fear and tried my hand at it. I discovered that basically...if you can do a t-shirt binding, you can do a loop in the back. It was really no harder than what I've already been doing. The only thing is that I can never remember how to do french thread loops to go over the button, so I just sewed the top of the loop closed with the button. It fits over her head just fine.

I did three ruffles about 1 1/4" wide each for the bodice. Ruffles like this are pretty easy in a knit fabric, just make sure you cut your strips so that the sides will not curl in. Jersey only curls on 2 sides, so just check which way it curls and cut your strips the other way! Tea Rose Home has some great jersey ruffle tutorials and projects if you'd like to try your hand at this.

I didn't want this skirt to be tooooo full, so I gathered each tier at about a 1:1.5 ratio with clear elastic. Each of the tiers has a finished width of 6". I know I've mentioned this before, but I buy tons of clear elastic by the the bunch over at Sewzannes (see link on the side) and use it like crazy in all my knit projects. Because I used it to gather each skirt tier, these ruffles s-t-r-e-t-c-h when DD pulls her skirt over her knees and does all those horrible things that kids do to their clothes. If you gather your knits without stretch, as you would a woven, you will be sorry because your seams will pop! Ack! Don't do that. :p~

One of these days I will have to do a clear elastic tutorial, but in the meantime you can always Google it and see what that comes up with (I know, I'm soooooo helpful!). Also on my list: how to gather a tiered skirt in the flat--I do all my tiered skirts this way and it is so quick and painless! Soon, soon, I will have to put that one together. I promise!

I'm stuck on a clip kick, eh? For this clip I fused some scraps of fabric to a woven interfacing, cut out shapes, then hot glued them to a clip. An easy, easy 10 minutes, and it really finishes off your project.

Okay, that's it for today, I need to actually go pick up DD from school. Coming up next I have more dresses! Tutorials! So check back, my readers, okay?