Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Wrapped Up Dress Tutorial

Today we have another treat for you...Jen and Autie from icandy handmade.  These ladies are wizards with knit, have style that I envy, and sew not only for their children but make some seriously cool clothing for themselves (if you haven't seen their skirts (my favorites) go check them out...they are pure awesomeness).  And did I mention that aside from all that they are some of the nicest bloggers we know?  Well, they are and we are happy to have them here sharing their style with us today.  So I'll stop writing already and let Jen take it away!

Hi everyone,
Jen here, from iCandy handmade.  Autie and I are super excited to be guest judges this week!  
I love that this week's challenge is sportswear.  Out of everything I make for my daughter, I find everyday dresses/clothes to be the most rewarding.  Especially when she likes what I make! (Which is hit and miss....)
It is so fun to see the handmade clothes be worn over and over!  
For the everyday clothes that I make, I use a lot of knit.  The clothes are more comfortable, and (once you have had practice) easier to make.  
Thanks to our blog, last June, I was able to conquer my fear/intimidation with knits with the Three-Part Harmony dress:

I had tried sewing with knit a few times before, and failed every time.  I had NO clue how to sew with them.  Inspired by a cute undershirt I saw, I was able to ease into sewing with knits using a variety of finishing techniques.  I also bought a serger, a Brother 1034D off of Amazon for less than $200!  It works like a champ and really helped me get over my issues.  Now I use both my machine and serger for each design I sew.
Once I successfully completed a project with knit, there was no stopping!  Autie joined in the fun too.
Here are some of the fun sportswear pieces we created:
This week's challenge here on Project Run & Play inspired me to come up with another everyday dress for Emily.
It is inspired by an adult dress I had pinned on Pinterest.
I showed Emily a little sketch of the dress, and let her pick out the fabric (from my stash).  
She was very particular.
She wore it to school yesterday, and at the end of the day, when she was getting ready for bed, she said that she wanted to wear this dress every day!  That made me feel SO good.
The other great thing about this dress, is that is a very quick project.  I made it in about 3.5 hours.
I used my Racer Tunic pattern (you can download it there-it's size 5), and just made a few adjustments.
Here is how to make one:
Materials:
1 yard knit fabric for dress
1/3 yard accent fabric
elastic trim or knit binding for neck and sleeves (or you can just hem)
Then you just need to hem the bottom, and finish the neck and armhole.  I folded them under 1/4" and ironed them, and finished them with cute elastic trim that I stretched while sewing on.

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5 comments :

  1. Darling! Where do you two like to purchase your knits? I'm having a hard time finding cute knit! Thanks for the tut!!

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    1. Hi Stef,
      Not to be unhelpful, but we go downtown LA to the fabric district for our knits.... If you ever get a chance to go, I can give you our favorite spots!

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    2. That's what I was afraid of! Who knows? Maybe I can sneak a side trip in some time when we're down south. I might have to plan a day trip to San Francisco in the meantime - there's got to be a good fabric district in SF, right?

      Thanks Jen!

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    3. Check out Made by Rae's sewing with knits series, she did a great post on shopping for knits online and gave a few sources.

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  2. Such a cute dress! I love it too when my daughter likes what I make too!

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