Down East Basics Dress tutorial

I am so excited to be finally sharing this tutorial with you!  This was one of those projects that was meant to be.  I was at the fabric store, saw this fabric and though "oh this will make something cute!".  Then after receiving my latest DownEast Basic catalog I saw the cute girls dress...It was the saw material.  Super cute!  So I decided I would to a remake!

This was super simple.  Its a rectangle dress.  So come on lets go!!

You will need jersy material, and Elastic thread and your basic cutting tools.

Start by picking out a shirt of the size you want your dress.  Lay it out flat and cut your rectangle as wide as the widest part of the shirt (the sleeves)  Either cut two rectangles, that will require sewing at the top of the sleeves, or if you have enough fabric to fold and the top, then you have one less sewing step...even easier.

this is folding it at the top...I didn't have enough length for this dress cause the stripes were going a certain way, but I wanted to show you the fold at the top.

mark where you want the waist to be by double pinning it...this will be used later

Also, measer and mark where the armpits are.  You want to leave them open as your sleeves.

using the same shirt as before, cut out a colar/neck

Now if you needed to sew at the top of the sleeves, pin next to the neck hole and sew at the top.  Also pin and sew the sides up to the arm pits where you marked earlier.  Keep the double pins in place where you marked the waist line.

Cut three long strips of fabric about 1 inch in width and ruffle them (ruffle tutorial HERE).  Pin in place and sew.

Now hand wind your elastic thread onto the bobbin with slight tension.  Using the same ruffle technique as above, sew 7-8 rows, continuously going around the waist.  These will be 1/4-1/2 inch apart.  The closer they are together, the tighter the smocking/shirring will be.  When done, spray with water and press with hot iron to shrink back up the elastic thread.  This is neat watching it shrink before your eyes.

You have now completed your dress.  No heming involved when your using jersey knit cause it doesn't fray.  This is a comfortable soft dress great for church, school or a fun little lunch date with daddy. 

I hope you found it easy!  It looks pretty much exact right???

Enjoy!!

Painting stripes on clothes

Okay this may be kind of rough looking and that's cause my painters tape is super wide. For onesies I suggest the one inch tape. I had to go over mine again to add more stripes. Tough.

Stretch your shirt on the counter and tape down. Firmly press tape down to make your stripe pattern. Grab your paint and apply. Let dry the remove. Set paint with iron and embellish.

Lately

A little update. So our sweet Bo has a chewing issue. He tends to snatch baby wipes toys and other small things on the floor when no one is looking and eat them. Usually he able to pass or throw them back up. This time was not the case. Last Friday he started throwing up his breakfast all over the girls toys. Not good. Gross and I was ticked that I had to clean the toys. Same thing the next day and Sunday. He stopped eating Sunday from not feeling well. Monday no food and thrrew up every hour. I had to stop giving him water cause it was coming back up and making an even worse mess. I made the call to the vet. Took him in he was dehydrated from throwing up so they gave some shots and did an x ray to see what was in there. Sure enough there were a few areas in his intestines where there were foreign objects. Took him home to see if he might pass it. Still wouldnt eat. Tuesday he still wasn't eating but I gave him little water he was able to keep it down except one time. I called the vet she said to take him in to he emergency hospital for surgery. We decided to waittil the next day and went back to the vet. A different dr looked at him and wanted to run more tests. Another x ray and an ultrasound. He had surgery yesterday. He ate a slew of baby wipes that were still connected to each other making one loong cloth. And he ate some toys. They had to make two incisions in his intestines because they couldn't pull the whole long wipe out from one stop. It started pulling on the intestine so they snipped it off and made a new incision and retraced the rest. It wws all too much for him to pasorr at was why he was so sick. He did great and I picked him up a few hours later. Now he is perking up and beginning to eat.

Now Greyson is really starting to fill out. We never get to take pictures together cause I busy doing it for everyone else. Joe you can see how small he is in comparison to me.

A new project coming soon

I know my posts have been rathe lame and not really worth the stop when your blog surfing but please come back next week. I bought some knit material a couple weeks ago that is striped just like this. I didn't have a project in mind except a couple pair of bloomers. Then I came across this dress in my recent downeast magazine and thought "perfect. I am making this for Pia!". I showed it to her and she agreed. I love the whole package. So I am super excited. It looks pretty easy. I may have to make one for Bella too. So stay tuned.

Sandwich on a stick

Make playing with your food a good thing. They had fun helping me make it and could wait to eat!!! That's a change!

LOVE

So posted a little bit ago about the Love sin in Scottsdale. We made plans to see it this last weekend while over hat way at the train park but never made it. I will though. Soon. Anyway. That has been my inspiration this valentines season for all my crafting. Here is what I have done. So if you need a run down here are all he techniques I used.
Freezer paper stenciling
Fabric dying
Chiffon flower rosette ( a little tute coming soon on that )
Plus just a good ole appliqué using heat n bond

6 weeks already?

Where has the time gone? Incant believe it my little girl turned two yesterday and Grey is 6 weeks. He is smiling a little and starting to make cooing sounds occasionally. Nevis quite the man. Aside from flexing his muscles he enjoys laying down on the boppy so he can see what's going on. Love this kid.

Happy Birthday Bella Rose

Yes she is 2. And quite the sass. All I can say is good thing she wears pig tails almost every day she needs all the cute points to save her life.

Random acts of LOVE

Put a love letter on his windshield with red lipstick along with kisses on the windows.
Xoxo,
Tricia

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