Thursday, April 15, 2010

The cherry dress tutorial :-)

So, it´s finished:
Doesn´t she look as if she believed she´s her beloved Taylor Swift herself? Of course she´s much cooler ;-) But she calls it like that - the Taylor dress. Funny thing is, she´s native german, so she doesn´t know what a lovely pun this is :-)
It was super easy and super quick, all in all it took me less than two hours, buying the fabric probably included, and I "invented" the pattern myself. Let´s have a closer look:
I bet there are lots of possibilities to improve the body fit, or to work more neat and tidy, but hey, neat and tidy isn´t exactly my middle name :-)
So, basically, I needed these parts:
You can see two parts, one for the skirt, one for the upper part. The upper part, you need four times - two for the lining, two for outside. Take care you have one right and one left side of each!
I took an old shirt that fit my daughter for measurements, and then laid the paper on her, to see if it fit her. You also need a small scrap of fabric, covering the back:

You sew the left side-fabric on the left side lining, right side in, and turn it around. Then sew the right side fabric on the right side lining, turn it around, and iron both parts. Now you have the two upper halfs of your dress. Tie them together at the straps, like this:
Attach the back part (that little fabric scrap, being as wide as your daughter´s back), and you finished part one.

For the skirt, I asked her how long she wished her dress to be, took a paper and losely cut out the shape for one skirt-part, in her desired lengh. I made the skirt out of 5 parts, but you i guess seven would do fine, too, for a different look. The only important thing is to measure loosely around your daughters waist, then divide this number through the number of parts you want to have, and take this number for the upper edge of your skirt-part. It doesn´t really matter how far your hem is, as long as it´s nice and wide and flary.
Sew the 5 (or 7) parts together, right sides on right sides, until you have a nice skirt. If you want, use a zig-zag stich to clean up, that makes it more durable.

Now turn your skirt right side in. Put the finished upper part of your dress inside, right side out, so again we have the two right sides touching, pin together, and if you like it that way, sew the two parts together. And you´re done!Go outside and enjoy!
Oh, and we need some music. I reckon we need something sunny, happy, right? But at the moment, I´m listening to this: It might not sound too happy, but it makes me feel happy. I love the rhythm, I love everything about the lyrics, I love that cool male voice, and I live how it makes me bang my head as if I was 18 again, and how it makes me looking forward to the festival we´ll go to in a couple of weeks. I think this song totally and completely rocks, and my poor kids had to endure it... well... about 50 times? 100 times? within the last 3 days :-)

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