Monday, May 10, 2010

Splish Splash Dress

Today I am guest posting at Brown Paper Packages. Leisel has a great blog, if you haven't had a chance to check it out...well I'd suggest you go look...TODAY ;-) Here is the project I made. I think it turned out pretty cute...read the end and see what happened when I was making it though! The Project was part of Leisel's month of Pattern make overs

pmm button


When asked to re-do a pattern, I started to think of what I wanted to make....well, with summer on it's way, we spend a lot of time at the splash pads around our house. So I thought I would work with a pillowcase dress pattern, and turn it into a swimsuit cover dress for my daughter.




With the pillowcase dress pattern, I decided to change it by using a different type of fabric and adding appliques.

Instead of a typical cotton fabric used in a pillowcase dress I used a knit material. (As a confession I have actually never used knit before, and it was much easier then I thought it would be!)

The bottom edge and armhole were a ribbed knit fabric (in the turquoise color). Both the bottom hem and the armholes where made by taking the ribbed knit material and making a bias tape. Need help making bias tape? Check here for help.




Doing something as simple as changing the type of fabric can make a huge difference.

The other change I mentioned was using appliques. The pattern for an applique can be found anywhere, clip art, a free hand drawing, I used my die cut machine to create what I wanted.



The key to using any applique is to remember to use Wonder-Under, especially on knit! The material shifts far too much, you need the Wonder-Under to help stabilize the design, then you can go around and satin stitch around the design......Changing your thread to match each piece of material will give you a much cleaner look.




I loved how easy and cute this simple dress turned out to be. I think that when you have a pattern you love, perhaps you don't need to look at making a major change to it, start simple by changing things like the fabric and adding appliques to your dress!



Summer here we come!


You know, I just cant seem to ever make a project with out something going wrong...and lo and behold this time was no exception.
When I was almost done with the project, I was multi-tasking (always a bad idea) I wrote something with a pen....not realizing it was leaking all over my hand and then picked up the dress...the WHITE dress, and the ink got all over the dress!




AHHH!



I quickly tried to remove the ink (Is that even possible?) All it did was make it seep through to the backside...

So I added some little circle appliques to cover the before mentioned pesky ink stains!

Problem solved!


Love,

8 comments:

  1. pen ink comes out easily with hairspray.
    spray generously with hairspray wait 10-15 seconds and then rinse in cold water.
    repeat if necessary. I sometimes like to scrub it a bit with my nail or a toothbrush but normally that's not necessary.
    it really works.
    Sorry I didn't tell you before the ink episode...

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  2. I think the dots are adorable, and would have never guessed they weren't part of the original design. But, if you ever find ink on someplace you can't cover up, say your couch or brand new jeans, I've learned from experience that rubbing alcohol works miracles, and it is cheap, so even better.

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  3. Well hello cute dress! And I would totally have done the exact same thing by accident! I'm always doing stuff like that!

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  4. Kristin I love your style! I love your tutorials! Hopefully you don't mind that I link to all of them, but I really think your stuff is so cute! I'd like to share a link to this on sewwhattoday.blogspot.com on May 13!

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  5. Really~really cute ... I was going to mention the hair-spray tip too!

    Very lovely model ;o)

    But here's the real-pressing {pun intended??} question ... why do you have such a pretty ironing board cover and mine looks totally trashed?!?

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  6. Do you think the dress would be as cute out of terry cloth? I would love for my daughter to have a dress/towel. :)

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  7. Terry cloth would be adorable....I was originally going to do that...but I had the knit on hand ;-)

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  8. Kristin:
    You are not lame, I actually added the link to my tutorial after you suggested it, so thanks! Can't wait to see your own dress, and I love your reversible headband below! I chopped my hair and should make some since my hair is too short to do anything different.

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