Arrietty Dress

I'm not sure if I was bit by the crafting bug, or what!  But I have been sewing every day for the past week.  And I love it!  It's been a long time since I've felt this motivated.  Maybe it's the Phoenix Comicon coming up.  I wanted to have this outfit ready for then!

As I said earlier, I was so excited to try making an Arrietty dress.  With the success of my turtleneck, and the ease with which I produced it, I was super anxious to go out and buy some red knit fabric and jump right in!

Only problem was that apparently knits are expensive at retail stores!  I've only ever bought it at fabric warehouses ($3-$4 a yard), and that bit I bought at Goodwill ($2.50 for 2 yards).  Looking at Joann Fabrics, the prices were very steep!  I found the perfect color, the perfect fabric, the perfect feel: $12.99 a yard!  Or, a sorta right color, with a sorta right fabric, and a sorta right feel: $5.99 a yard.  ARGH!  The dilemmas of a crafter!

Ultimately, I went with the more expensive fabric.  I wanted to make sure it looked good!  And the way the jersey felt was divine!  I'd make all my clothes from this if I could.  I absolutely love it!

I bought two yards just to be safe.

If you remember my turtleneck:

I based the dress off that same template.  I used the same tank top, and then pinned a skirt to it at the length I liked.

A note about fabric directions.  Each fabric has a natural stretch.  For knits, it's usually very pronounced.  One way stretches while the other is more unyielding.  Well, I forgot this as I was working on this project.  Mostly because I had to tinker with the best way to get the dress cut out in one piece.  That meant flipping the fabric sideways.  I was SO, SO lucky that this fabric is multi-directional stretchy.  I didn't even know that existed!  It has a lot more stretch going left to right.  But there was some going up and down, which saved this outfit!  If it didn't have the stretch, I never would have been able to get it over my head!  (Well, I could have added in a zipper, but it would have taken a lot more time and effort.)

I cut out the pattern, starting at the skirt, along the sides, the armpit, the sleeve, and then instead of following the plunging neckline, I just cut straight up.

Next, I traced this on the fabric again to get the back.

So hard to see, but the dress front is folded on top.

With both pieces cut out, I pinned them together along the sides, right side to right side.

I sewed up both sides.  Then I sewed from the top of the sleeve to the top of the high neck.

Next, I used the same trick of implementing an existing pattern for the sleeves.

I cut out two.

Then folded them in half and sewed the long side down.

To attach the sleeves, remember that you want your fabrics RIGHT SIDE to RIGHT SIDE.  Turn your dress inside out and place the sleeves inside, pinning them in place.  Sew all around.  And you've got this:

It's way too long, I'll have to trim it!  But I'm done for now!

~Buttons

Make a Turtleneck

I've had a project in mind ever since I rewatched Miyazaki's wonderful film "The Secret World of Arrietty" (based on the novel "The Borrowers" by Mary Norton).

The Arrietty soundtrack cover

Arrietty wears an adorable red dress.  It has long sleeves and a high neckline.  This is the outfit she wears to "borrow" things from the human's house.

I wanted that outfit so bad!

So, while at Goodwill this past weekend, I spied about two yards of this jersey knit fabric.  I bought it for $2.50!

I thought it would be the perfect fabric to attempt to make a turtleneck in preparation for an Arrietty cosplay dress.

I don't have a pattern for a turtleneck, so I was unsure of where to start.  I had to force my hesitance aside and just DO IT!  I have this terrible fear of wasting fabric, of making outfits I never wear.  Suppress this if you have it.  The only way to learn and improve is to make those mistakes.  I worked up my courage and drew up a small sketch of what I thought was the best way to approach this.

My breakthrough idea was using an existing shirt as a template.

I don't own turtlenecks.  I'm not sure why.  I had to improvise.  I grabbed a tank top and started with that.

Let me add a quick note about fabric direction.  Most fabrics have a natural stretch to them; this is especially true with knits.  Always make sure your stretch goes left to right.  This is what enabled me to get my head inside the turtleneck without adding a zipper.  This also helps the fabric hug your curves and look more flattering.

So, I folded my fabric in just enough to fit the tank top.  From there, I cut along the bottom, side, armpit, and sleeve, leaving about an inch for seam allowance.  At the top, instead of following the dipping neckline, I just went straight up.  When unfolded, I got this:

I now used this as my pattern and traced in on the fabric to get the back.

Sorta hard to see the two layers atop each other.

I cut it out.  Next, I sewed the two pieces together.  First along the sides, from the bottom of the shirt to the bottom of the arm.  Next, I sewed from the top of the arm to the top of the neck.  Like so:

This left my arm holes completely open.

Now for the sleeves.... I cheated on this.  I used an existing pattering I already had.  Luckily it fit perfectly!  If you don't have a pattern you can borrow, look at this tutorial for making sleeves.

I cut out two sleeves.  Fold the sleeve in half, then sew along the long side.

Attaching sleeves used to intimidate me.  Not anymore.  The trick is just remembering you want your fabrics RIGHT SIDE to RIGHT SIDE.  So, turn your shirt inside out.  Keep your sleeves right side out (like normal, the seams on the inside).  Put your sleeve inside your shirt and align the sewn edge of the sleeve with the side seam of the shirt.  Pin it all the way around.

Sew it all down.  Flip it out, and you get this:

Repeat on the other sleeve.

And you're done.  Well, I was done.  You'd still technically need to hem the bottom, hem the sleeves, and hem the neckline.  Since this was practice--and I'm super lazy--I left it as it was.  That's one of the wonderful things about knits, you don't need to finish seams!

Can you tell I have soot sprites on my phone case?

~Buttons

Lazy Maxi Skirt

I'm going to show the easiest, laziest way to make a maxi skirt.  I call it the "I don't give a f*** maxi skirt."  It's for those emergencies when you need the skirt so fast that you're willing to cut corners to see it done.  Of course, you can always go back at a later time and put a little more effort into it.  Or, just continue being lazy and keep it as is.

Materials:
1 yard of knit
Thread
Scissors
Sewing machine
Elastic


Step 1: Fold your material in half hot dog style.

Step 2: Stitch up the long side.  (I used a long zig-zag because that was what I saw suggested for working with knits.)

Step 3: Fold down the top hem about an inch and sew, leaving a two inch opening for inserting the elastic.

Step 4: Thread elastic into the top opening, sew it to itself, stitch the hole the rest of the way.

Step 5: Use scissors to trip the bottom of the skirt to the correct length.

And that's it!  This required two straight seams (along the side and the top hem), and the few short stitches when sewing the elastic to itself.  This is the easiest project imaginable!  It took me about ten minutes.

Now, the down side.  Apparently knits aren't great at bunching.  The extra fabric at the top--since I didn't measure my waist and trim accordingly--doesn't separate on its own.   You need to manually get the gathered parts to spread out along the elastic.  This isn't a big deal to me since I typically wear long shirts that don't show anywhere near the top waistband.

But, I got the job done in time to wear it to a performance that night.  It all worked out in the end.

I case you can't tell, this is an outfit I've assembled for casual cosplay.  It's fashioned after Chihiro from the Miyazaki anime "Spirited Away."

~Buttons