Ruffle Skirt

So when I saw this Cute Ruffle SkirtI knew I had to make one...  To make it more my style I found this cute fabric for the perfect price at walmart of all places... they are doing a fashion fabric road show. all the fabric is $5.00 for 5 yards!!!  so you have to buy the whole bolt(5yards), but i was fine with that. cause I tend to make mistakes.... so go check out your walmart.  I love this fabric, it's like a satin but much heavier. it says it has some polyester in it to... so it's slightly stretchy... perfect...

Ok, so I pretty much followed the tutorial from ruffles and stuff.   If i had a t-shirt I would have totally done the t-shirt waist band... best idea ever.. but I didn't so here's what i did.

1. cut out your main skirt... you are basically making a trapazoid. I hope that's the right shape... I can't remember...   anyway. take the measurment of your waist, divide by two cause you will have a front and back, then add at least an inch for seam allowance. then decide how flared you want your skirt, i did a 45in bottom, again divide by two and add an inch. then mark a "middle" that's where you'll center your measurements.... make appropriate measurments and mark. waist, length and bottom.  then cut off the excess... i hope that makes sense..

2. for my waist band I did an elastic, but I didn't do the elastic until the very end, but I did sew the casing for the elastic. So i just folded about 1 inch down and sewed the very bottom edge, (I did leave about a 2inch opening so I could feed the elastic at the end). 

 3. Cut your ruffle strips. I did (6) 5" strips. Hem one edge...

 4. Ruffle the unfinished edge. if your fabric frays, use fray check, that glue stuff...

 5. for your first ruffle I had the top of my ruffle fabric touch the stitch from the waistband.  pinned it, pinning is essential cause you can see if your ruffle is too tight and make adjustments to fit the skirt...   then sew along the ruffled seam. 

 6. I always start and end a few inches from the edge so I can sew the ruffles together before finishing. So once you get here stop.
I flip only my ruffle inside out so the right sides are face together. 
Then sew the edges together. 
 Flip your ruffle back. and finish sewing to the skirt, the nice thing about ruffles is that if you have excess your just ruffle it up and sew it in...

 Ruffle 1 done...
7. So my ruffles were anywhere from 3.5 to 4 inches by the time i did the hem and sewed to the skirt. so in order to cover the stitching of the next ruffle I measured 3inches from the ruffle down, and pinned, then sewed.  Repeat for however many ruffles you do.

 8. For the belt. I just took some ribbon, lined it up with that same waistband stitch and sewed both edges of the ribbon. It's great cause it hid that top ruffle.
 9. when the ribbons meet I just do a fancy triangle type fold and sewed it down.

 It makes it look like ties.. but don't worry I cover it up...
 10. so cut several circles. I did 10. all different sizes. you could use a template, I just eyeball it, cause when they get burned you can't tell if they are uneven.

 burn the edges...

 then rather than stacking neatly on top of each other I stagger mine.

 Looks like this...

 Then hand sew to the skirt, while doing this I added a few beads in the center...

I forgot to get pictures of this part, but after i had everything on I fed my elastic through my casing and finished the edge....

 All DONE!!!!  can't wait to wear it! please forget my tube socks...

I linked up to Tatertots and Jello, this is huge link up party, so go check it out...

and

and entered Crystal's Craft Challenge

I kept going!

So after doing my first t-shirt inspired by tearosehome, I kept going. I'm in love with the ruffles.

1. So but one t-shirt into 2inch strips and sew together, I think I did all six strips together for one long strip and ruffle down the middle.

2. for this one I started pinning half way down the v-neck and went around the neckline.

3. then came back around to where I started and then just turned and went back following the v-neck just matching where my other ruffle ended.

I stopped at three ruffles but do whatever you like.

4. I kept my ruffle attached and just sewed what I had pinned. Just down that same ruffle stitch.

5. once you've sewed your ruffles in place you'll start your flower. I went ahead and overlapped my ruffles with the first outer circle of the flower. This makes the flower cover up the unsightly curved of the ruffle.

6. so just sew and curve your ruffle into the flower until you reach the middle. I did add a smaller flower on the other side to cover up the other ruffle curve.

All done!!

I did this one...

then this one!

TRY IT OUT! YOU'LL BE HOOKED... again go check out




 she is amazing. and
. there are so many good ideas floating around!

H&M/TeaRoseHome inspired t-shirt

So I read the blog http://tearosehome.blogspot.com/ regularly. I 've been so inspired by her t-shirt make overs. I've kept my eye out for cheap t-shirts and I finally found target t-shirts for $1.00!! seriously I had a dance in the store and then bought like 12. So be prepared for t-shirt overload. Anyway I have this shirt from h&m which I love and combined that idea with this from tearosehome. and came up with this.
So to do it. you need two of the same shirt. One to cut up. I cut my strips into two inch strips. I did however many I could get until you hit just below the armpit, I got 8.

2. then using 6 strips I made three long strip by sewing two of the strips together. You have to cut open your strips to sew them together. Once you have your 3 long strips, ruffle by sewing on the edge. I now there are many ruffle techniques. so do what works for you. If i set my machine to the longest stitch and the tightest tension it automatically does it.

3.Pin your ruffle to your shirt. I wanted to do mine like the H&M tee where it didn't follow the neck line. this is the front.

this is the back.

4. Sew along the same ruffle stitch.

5. add your second ruffle just below the first and sew. continuing with however many ruffles you want.

6. For the flower with the two remaining 2inch strips, sew them together as well, then ruffle down the middle of the strip rather than the edge. then I just form my flower as i sew. I start on the outer edge and sew along the same ruffle stitch, except as you sew you'll sew around in a spiral. It's kind of tricky cause your sewing in the middle of all the ruffles. but slowly keep sewing your ruffle in a spiral until you get to the middle. if you strip is too long just trim it. I hope that was explanitory enough. anyway should end up like this! It's cute on. I'll have to take a picture the next time I wear it! good luck!

I linked to crystal's blog and

Cute Slip Tutorial

Please forgive me, I am NEW to the blog world and new to tutorials, but I am so excited about this I'll give it a shot!

I have a few skirts and dresses that are just slightly too short for my style. So when I saw this website http://www.vintagehem.com/ and this etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/aslipshop Iknew that was the solution to my short problem. The only thing that held me back from buying one of these amazing slips was of course the $$$$... so finally I cleaned off the dust from the old sewing machine and gave it a shot. So for about $10 I got THREE slips! So worth it... Again I am not a good sew-er but it works for me. I'm sure you pros out there know the right stitches and cutting techniques...
Here are the three slips I did.


White Eyelet Slip


The slip was at DI for $3.00 and I got 1 1/2 yrd of eyelet trim (depending on your slip you may need more, just measure the bottom, mine was 40) from walmart about $4.00
1. just pinned the trim to the slip.

I pinned about 1 inch above the end of the slip just because for a short girl like me it would have been too long...

Then I just followed the same stitch in the trim...

I did hem the raw edges of the trim also, check the end for tips. that's it!

2. Ruffle Slip
I had this slip, and the material was at walmart in the $2.00 section... I'm not sure what it is, maybe a polyester... it's see through and light. I got 1yd but you might get 1 1/2 if your doing a bigger size.
1. I cut off the lace from this slip... don't worry about the scallop I do a straight line stitch I just wanted to keep the integrity of the finished edge... I don't have a serger or know how to finish an edge of silky material...

2. cut the trim fabric.
1 strip of 10x60 (you may need a longer length depending on your slip, the bottom of my slip measured 40 so i allowed 20inches extra for the ruffle)
1 strip of 8x60
1 strip of 6x60
Then apply fray check if needed. This fabric totally frayed a lot so it needed it bad...

3. do a ruffle stitch on both sides of the strip.
it will look like this...

4. This is by far the hardest part. I started with the 10inch wide strip folded it in half and pinned to the slip. Then add the 8inch strip, then the 6inch strip. I had to pin it quite a few time before it looked right and I had to make sure I had all the layers of the ruffles in the pinned section before I sewed.

5. To ensure I got all the layers I sewed a zigzag stitch and rather than using the foot as a guide i did just a little outside of the foot. if that makes sense. check the picture... maybe it can explain my lack of words...

7. When I got to the end I sewed the two unfinished edges together. for tips check the end of the post.

3 layer edge slip.

The slip i got at DI for $3.00 and the black satin at walmart for $2.00 a yd.

1. So cut 1 strip of 8x41(whatever the end of your slip measures, mine was 40 so 1 inch extra for seam allowance)

1strip of 6x41

1strip of 4x41

Then fold each strip in half and iron, I ironed the 8in first then added the 6in then the 4in, making sure the raw edges meet and the top edges meet. You end up with a 4in, 3in and a 2 inch fabric layer.

2. For this one i wanted the lace of the slip to kind of be the "finished" edge look. so I pinned the lace edge of slip to the layers.

3. Sew along that lace edge. again just make sure you get all the layers of fabric.

Here it is finished.

And here it is on! This one is my FAVORITE! I can't wait to wear it out!

TIPS!!!

I'm sure you will notice while you sew that your pinning was not perfect but you adjust. and of course the finishing edge is the worse.

So I start my sewing about 1-2inches away from the edge or seam, then go around the slip until you are about to meet up at the begining but end about 1-2 inches away as well. At this point you can kind of eyeball where to sew the edges of trim together. So them together. Then go back and finish sewing the rest of trim to the slip.
This slip had a slight curve on the edge i guess for movement and slits in skirts...

So maybe this picture can help you see what i'm trying to explain... man these tutorials are hard.. kudos to all you wonderful tutorial writers!

I linked to


and