Loooove the back. I cut the butterflies out from some burnout velvet I have and then appliqued them on the back. I love those little things that make a simple thing special and different.
Although this dress is pretty simple, it uses stretch fabric and should have some knowledge of sewing. This isn't going to be an exact step by step, this is just going to give you the basic idea of what I did. I used a four way stretch cotton from Spandex World.
Lay a dress or a shirt that you like the fit of on the fold your fabric. Trace around it adding seam allowance. I folded up the sleeves a bit because I wanted 3/4 sleeves. This top part should go down to about the widest part of your hips. I made mine pretty straight (the whole dress is wide enough to just fit around my hips) because I wanted a bit of a looser look. If you want when sewing you can make yours tighter at the waist. Just make sure you cut it out wide enough to fit around your hips. Cut a front and a back. They are the same.
I originally thought I might want dolman sleeves, so I cut it out that way. I later decided I didn't like that and cut the sleeves smaller. Here you can see where I cut small sleeves smaller.
Skirt! My skirt part is two layers of the same shape, one is just shorter than the other. Here you can see the basic shape, if you don't have have a skirt to trace just make the top of the skirt the same as the bottom of your dress and then draw a shape like above. Make sure to cut out a front and a back.
Sew together the front and back top. Sew together the sides of the skirts. Layer the skirts together. Sew skirts to top. I didn't take any pictures of this part... it is pretty much the same as putting together any other simple dress. Is that alright?
Make sure to use a zig-zag stitch, ballpoint needle and polyester thread (I HIGHLY recommend Gutermann)
I originally cut neckline much smaller. For one thing, stretch fabric stretches. For another thing, it is always easier to make the neckline bigger but you can never go smaller! I tried the dress on and adjusted the neckline a bit at a time till I got it how I wanted.
Sew the neckline with a straight stitch being very careful not to stretch it.
That is it! I didn't hem the sleeves or the skirts.
But I wasn't reaaallly done...
Blue dress inside out and about to become purple dress!
I used Rit Dye in Scarlet. I divided the dress in to five sections. Dipped the first section in for two minutes, then put the dress in deeper for another minute, then deeper again. About one minute for each section till the last one where I just dipped it in, made sure it was all wet then pulled it out. It might be kind of hard to tell in the pictures, but the dress is darker on the bottom. The effect will of course be stronger the longer you leave the item in the dye.
Rinsing... it looks like blood...
Yes... the tub is now stained pink.
The buttons on the sleeves! I couldn't decided which ones I wanted so I got them all and mixed them up. I love how it turned out.
So that is all! I am done with this dress. If you wanna make your own and have any questions let me know! I will do my best to help.
It's absolutely perfect on you! Such a neat idea with the dye. Purple is definitely in your color palette. :)
ReplyDeleteI love it. You are so creative. MIMI WOULD BE SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHey, I love your blog!!!! This is such a cool idea for a dress. BTW your hair is beautiful!! How do you do the different tones at the ends?
ReplyDeleteCute dress! I REALLY wish I could sew. It's so neat! :)
ReplyDeleteJust showed Jack your blog. When he saw the dress he said, "Woe! I could see that in a magazine." :-)
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