Sewing Day

Molly and I had a sewing day. We've had "craft day" before, where we make a small project, but as we browsed Pinterest for ideas that weren't too expensive, we landed on this idea:

Our projects were based on these two tutorials:

(from here) 

(from here)

Molly began with a pillowcase she had sitting around, but I bought fabric (a yard of knit from JoAnns... with a coupon it was about $5 for a yard... I didn't use the whole thing... I had about 1/4 yard left over).

We basically made a pillowcase shape (two rectangles) - hers was whatever standard pillowcase size is. We didn't measure it because we didn't need to. Mine started out wider, so I found that what worked best was to cut it to 21 inches wide. I'm not sure how long it was, but when held to my shoulders, it came to my mid-calf. I had intended to make a shirt, but when we saw how long the fabric was, I decided to just make a dress... if I ever wanted it to be a shirt, I could just trim off the extra fabric!

You sew a casing for the neck tie, then sew up the sides... not all the way, because then you won't have arm holes. Measure and mark with a safety pin to figure out the best place to get arm holes and sew up to that point. 

One of the tutorials I used said to use a zig-zag stitch, but my fabric kept getting stuck in my machine when I tried, so I used a straight stitch and didn't have one single issue with the machine or the fabric. It wasn't a super-thin knit, so that might be why.

Then you thread the ribbon through (mine was a satin sash from an old skirt, and Molly's was a ribbon) and tie it on! Both of us had to sew our arm-holes up a little higher, but it all worked out. After we tried them on, we hemmed ours. Molly's was easy... she just had to seam-rip the bottom and sew over the line of the old hem. I measured where I wanted my hem to be and then just sewed it up! My fabric was knit, so I really didn't need to sew a hem at all, but I can't really cut straight lines well, so I didn't want to risk it. 

 I didn't get a picture of Molly in her shirt, but she wore it home! I didn't have anywhere to go, but I tried it on anyway... I can  either belt it or leave as-is.

This project did take us a long time, mostly because we didn't know what we were doing. The sewing machine created problems, and Molly had to take the time to seam-rip parts of her pillowcase. All-in-all this project could easily be accomplished in 1-2 hours, possibly less depending on the skill level! I have some extra fabric sitting around that I might employ to make similar garments this summer :)