easy as vintage pie

a couple of months ago melly of the amazing melly sews asked if i would join in the fun of her 30 days of sundresses again this year—and of course i said YES! (SERIOUSLY—the girl is ah-mazing. from her pattern making and publishing, to her techie tutorials and drafting services and sewing abilities and series coordinating…melly, you make me want to be a better person.)

maybe you remember my offering from last year—the lettuce hem maxi dress. it was easy enough…but i wondered if i could do something even easier this time around!

well looky here. an even easier sundress. and i think i may like it even better than last years (which, as a sidepoint—also the last time i sewed for myself i believe.shameful.)

okay, so a lot of us busty gals cry about knits. i know i do! those cute woven shirtdresses are a serious no-go when you’re bigger than a b-cup. but the truth is that knits are a chesty chicks BFF. it’s approximately one bazillion times easier to make something that fits you from knit than woven materials. and if you’re starting with an already made tank? two bazillion times ;)

so, that’s what i did. i started with a basic tank. but when it comes to me + dresses + modesty i feel neck showing + shoulders = no bueno. it’s kind of a one or the other thing. why? i dunno. just how i feel. shoulders + neck = hussy. so i hacked off the bottom of my tank and used it to fill in the neck, creating an asymmetrical collar thingy. then i added a new waistband, which i shirred with elastic thread in the back, and a full skirt with pockets. it slips on over my head—no zippers or buttons to worry about, and i can wear it with or without the belt.

basically…i kind of love it.

now of course, as usual, i wanted to take nice bright photos and work up a photographed step by step tutorial…nope. with five kiddos home all day for summer break it’s just not happening. all the sewing is happening at night.

and all the finished-product-picture-taking is occurring in the rain. oops.

so i made the executive decision to break out the old drawing skillzzz for this tutorial, which i believe may turn out to be infinitely better. for o1) now i can just sew and take notes and go illustrate later, making the sewing process faster and more enjoyable for moi, and (possibly more importantly) o2) i can illustrate myself with the pouty lips and long luscious eyelashes i’ve always wanted. kiss, kiss. mwah.lets get serious: this is crazy stupid easy. from start to finish, with no clear plan (just a vague idea), and taking notes as i went—this took me about 2 1/2 hours.

SUPPLIES
one tank top
2 yards of any kind of matching fabric
coordinating thread and elastic thread
optional: buttons for top and a belt if ya wanna.

i used a red $4 tank from old navy, and this super soft “good fortune” by kate spain for moda that i’ve been hoarding for oooh…maybe a year or so! this could easily be modified using a tank with sleeves if you want even more coverage. and this would translate easily into a girl’s dress too!

INSTRUC-TEY-ON-EHS

* i use a 1/2” seam allowance whenever it matters.

slip on your tank and mark with a pin or fabric marker a point under your bust. don’t stretch the tank, just mark where it naturally settles.

REMOVE THE TANK before proceeding. <---super important

1/2” below your mark cut the tank off in a straight line.

not this crazy wavy line i drew. not sure why i did that.

cut off the hem of the tank also. the hem is lovely, but we don’t need it. discard it. or, ummm…make a bow for your cat.

waste not, want not.

take that middle section of your tank and cut it open at one side seam, trimming off the seam/stitching from the area.

refold it long ways, right sides together, and stitch the short ends closed. clip the corners and turn it right side out. give it a press. this is now your collar piece.

to attach it to the tank top—start about 1/4 of the way up on one side of the neckline. stretch and pin the new collar piece, right sides together, raw edge of collar to neck of shirt, all the way arouuunnnd the collar, back where you started, and overlapping a bit.

i found it easier to pin the beginning, pin the end (overlapping where i began by about 2”) and then stretch and ease the rest of the neckline/collar pieces together.

sew them together with a stretch stitch or small zigzag. flip the collar up into position, press the seam allowance down and top stitch around the edge.

i tried it on at this point and fiddled with the collar a bit. once i got it laying how i wanted i tacked it in place.

now the waistband:

measure just under your bust.

now take a realllly, REALLY deep breath and check the measurement again.
divide that number in half, add 1” and that’s the length of the front half of your waistband.
that number in half plus 6” is the length of the back half of your waistband.

that 6” you’re adding is to give you the space you need to slip the dress off and on. if your bust to underbust measurements are significantly large (and i mean really, REALLY large. because mine is pretty large. so you must be a boobie monster)  you may need to increase it a smidge. i can wiggle myself into this—it’s not loose, but i’m not worried about busting stitches—and i have about a 7” difference between the fullest part of my bust vs. just under my bust.

i made my waistband 6” high, making it about 5” finished size. i kind of wish i had done it at 5”, giving me 4” finished size. look in the mirror with your tape measure and see what you think looks best.

so let’s say you measure 30” around just under your bust. then you take a deeep breath and it’s 32”. you’d cut one piece at 17”x6” (half + 1”)  and one piece 22”x6” (half + 6”). got it?

save yourself some trouble later and mark the center of each waistband piece, top and bottom. just fold it in half and put a little snip in.

now, we shirr.

wind the elastic thread on your bobbin. why yes, i do put my bobbin on my machine and hold the thread in my hand and wind it that way. most people say to wind it by hand. i’m a rebel. plus i’m impatient. ain’t nobody got time for dat. if you need more help on sewing with elastic thread, there are good references HERE and HERE.

sew lines of shirring across the length of your longer waistband piece. i did 10 rows of shirring spaced approx. 3/8 of an inch apart. that gave me about 3/4" seam allowance top and bottom.

then sew your waistband pieces together at the side seams, right sides together.

hmmm…sew at side seams. possible sewing blog name?

now you’re going to sew your waistband to your top. match up the side seams and the center front and center back (remember those little snips i told you to put in?)

you’ll probably have to ease the tank into the front a bit, and ease the waist band into the tank back a bit. remember: you want to attach the tank top ABOVE the first row of shirring! you want the tank and the waistband to all stretch when you’re putting the dress on!

press your seam allowance up and top stitch. use a stretch stitch or a long straight stitch and gently stretch the fabric as you do this.SKIRT
cut two pieces of fabric: width of fabric x whatever length you want plus about 3” for  hem and seam allowance. better to go a little longer—you can always hem it shorter but it’s harder to add fabric back on. i cut my pieces 27” long.

again—mark the center of your back and front skirt pieces with a small snip.

if you want pockets cut out 4 pocket pieces also. what shape are pocket pieces? glad you asked. go HERE to see my instructions on pockets.sew your pocket pieces to your skirt, and your skirt sides together. run a gathering stitch around the top of the skirt.

i like splitting my gathering stiches into 4 sections—side seam to front center, then to the other side, then side to back center, and back center to the other side. i find it’s easier to control my gathering if it’s divided up a little more.once your skirt is gathered to the same size as your top, fit them right sides together, lining up your center marks and side seams.

sew the skirt and top together. remember to sew the skirt to the waistband in the back BELOW the last row of shirring, so the skirt will stretch when you slip your dress on.
i generally do at least two rows of stitching on the waist, just for safety’s sake ;)
press your seam allowance down, and finish it off however you desire (pinking shears, overlock, leave it be…whatever floats your boat.)

last steps: hem that bad boy and give it a final press. i do a 1/4” turn up and press, then a 2” turn up and stitch down so there’s no raw edges.
i put two buttons on the collar just for looks, but that’s totally optional.

thus concludes your sundress tutorial, as illustrated by googiemomma. i’m available for commission illustration work, fyi.

stick a fork in it cause that trash is done.
maybe not a fork. that’s weird. plus you did a lot of hard work. bare minimum: high five yourself.

i didn’t initially intend for this to have such a vintage look. but i guess a full-skirted sundress just kind of gravitates towards a vintage look. i don’t mind..add a big high sock bun and red lips for days and there you have it: one super simple sundress.

i am yelling at myself: STAND UP STRAIGHT!!!

sorry for the wonky colors in these pics—my camera was very unhappy with the bright reds + dull grey bricks + overcast skies. and it literally started pouring as soon as we got out of the car. as you can see in the above shot.

one last sidepoint: i had another spot in mind for photos, but ran out of time in the morning and didn’t get to go until after my kiddo’s dentist appointments (yes, i went to the dentist like this. i felt so 50’s housewifey). and by the time we left elliot was an hour late for her nap and the meltdown clock was ticking. so we went right across the street to the now-empty old walmart building. i thought the grey bricks and green grass would be cool.
well, i was right…the backdrop was fine. HOWEVER. i think we found the local drunk hangout, because the smell of pee was so unbelievably overwhelming that it was all we could do to get these quick shots before taking off. it was TERRIBLE.

which is also why i have to cut my face off in most of these shots. it’s me, throwing up in my mouth. blerg.

MELLY—thanks so much for letting me join the SUMMER SUNDRESS SERIES again! it’s so much fun! all you readers—have you checked out all the other awesome sundress action happening over there? you should!!

abrupt beginnings, too.

the pictures i’m about to share hardly do the dresses justice.

but then again, that’s kind of become my motto. either “oh boy i haven’t blogged in FOR.EH.VER because reasons” or “sorry these pics are lousy but the kids were cranky and reasons.”

whatever. i’m over it. this is my life and i’ll never be THAT blogger. i’m me—the blogger that sews things and doesn’t take pictures because she can’t be bothered, and sometimes takes really super cute pics of her kids to share but mostly they’re just…not. consider it my way of keeping us bloggers, as a whole, approachable. you’re welcome.

so, where was i? ah yes, the dresses. first i tried the window shot:

nope. blown out pic and oh heyyyy untrimmed door! how you doin’?

(good thing i watermarked that bad boy…people be stealin’ that pic like whoa)

so i moved on to the hanging-from-our-dresser shots.

i swear to you—those handprints on the drawers? NOT there when i took the picture. at least…i didn’t see them.

but this is it: two little dresses. the paper boat fabric had me at hello when i found it in joann’s. 1 yard, which i managed to miscut. truly these dresses were like a comedy of errors with the poor photography as it’s climactic ending. it began when i cut the first front bodice piece of elliot’s dress in half accidentally. i had to recut it, and so i ran short on fabric for gigi’s bodice and had to make it more empire waisted. worked out though—i like the shorter bodice better.

but it didn’t end there: i somehow made the top of elliot’s dress way too small. no way would she fit. i sent it to the corner for a time out and to think about what it had done. eventually it came back sheepishly, apologized, and offered up the idea of a contrasting back placket with buttons to add in a design element and extra bodice width. (i sound so like i know what i’m talking about, right? totally made up that ‘back placket’ thingy.)

i like big bows. and i can not lie.
elliot’s bow actually ties, and only the left three buttons are functional. the right three are just for looks. gigi’s dress has an invisible zipper and her bow attaches with snaps nope. at midnight before they were to wear these dresses i sat down in bed to sew on the snaps and sewed the first one on backwards and said that’s the end of that. i’m pinning it. like with a literal safety pin, not like on my imaginary online pinboard. so yes, gigi’s bow is safety pinned inside. (approachable, remember?)

i also pretty much love the little cap sleeves on gigi’s dress. and if i had thought to take some closer photos you would surely be astounded by the pattern matching happening through those aforementioned sleeves. which was totally on purpose. (shifty eyes).

and so all my foolishness with door/dresser pics in the morning left me no time to get pics of the girls in their just-dressed, just-coiffed, happy happy morning looks. instead you get afternoon just-before-naptime photos. and as…well, virtually anyone will tell you: that is simply a Bad Idea.

gigi was actually trying. bless her little heart--even with messy hair and a grumpy sister she was attempting to give me a smile and be cute.

elliot, on the other hand…well, i think her face says it all. i took. away. the noodle.

there is five yards of navy tulle between these two dresses. FIVE.
tulle, i don’t know how to quit you.

it’s like trying to sew two live cats together and every stinkin’ time i’m like oooh a tulle skirt would be sooo purdy yes five yards please and then later i’m all RAZZAFRAZZA PPPFFFLLLLTHHH HATE TULLE stomping around like that red headed looney tunes character (figures. us gingers have such a bad rap. totally undeserved i might add.)

please—for my own sanity and the welfare of my family, should i ever again be lured in by the siren song of tulle you have my permission to smack me on the head with a bolt of fabric.

not only did i do three layers of tulle on each skirt, i hit up my favorite trashy fabric store and bought the world’s largest roll of navy piping for ONE DOLLAR (adding to my collection of black and brown). so, obviously, PIPE ALL THE THINGS. or each layer of tulle. individually.

i see you lookin’ at that stripe matching across the zipper. yeah.

it’s fine though. the bazillion yards of tulle and piping and miscut striped fabric turned into two fluffy dresses. the piping simultaneously weighed down the tulle skirts and puffed them out. how? i don’t know. can we get some scientists on that? but i like the way it looks.
mmmm…tulle….
you know what else the piping did? provided a convenient hook for elliot’s skirt to catch on daddy’s shoe and rip clean off one whole tulle layer. the second time she wore it.

not cool. not cool at all. :(

so now i’m tired and cranky and can’t think of a smooth segue way to ending this bad boy. thus, abrupt ending.

she could have danced all night…

this child was waiting—rather impatiently—for the day she could finally be on a stage. and dance. that’s just the kind of kid she is—no problem with the spotlight, this one.

pre-mandatory garish red lips. when she still had some semblance of a little girl ;)

that’s not to say she’s never nervous--when we went to the dress rehearsal she was. i tried to explain what was going to happen to her—but i think the brain of a 4 year old just couldn’t quite process it.

Stage Makeup: freaking out fathers everywhere since the dawn of time.

so when the teenaged “helpers” led her away to go backstage i ran out to the auditorium pretty unsure of what i was going to see. was she going to freeze up in the lights of the stage?

no way dudes.

she absolutely. loved. it. and when i reminded her that this was just ‘practice’—that in 2 weeks mom-mom and pop and other mom-mom and mommy and daddy and her sisters and brother and aunt kate were ALLLLL coming to see her dance on the stage…oh yeah. good stuff.

the night of the recital i waited with her until the show started and the moms went to sit.
“are you nervous, gigi?”
she turned those giant blue eyeballs on me. “why would i be nervous?”
like it was the most foreign concept. who would be nervous about dancing on a stage in front of a couple hundred people? this is the stuff dreams are made of.

shakin’ that tail feather (they danced to Rockin’ Robin)

i’m fairly certain photographing a lit stage from a dark auditorium is a special kind of photography magic i just don’t have. blurry pics aside, i think you can tell just how much she loved it.

one last kiss for the audience

post-recital review with another dancer ;)

and the clincher? the preschool classes do their dance and then their tumbles. she’s struggled with the tumbling all year. and the night of the recital? sister brought the house down.
for your enjoyment: a small video. you’ll know which one is gigi. (or maybe you won’t…she’s the one right in the center of the screen)

gigi tumbles from Shannon Kline on Vimeo.