Party dress part 2

Alright now... if you followed the instructions from yesterday you have yourself a bodice.  At the point I get a damp paper towel and blot the blue mark-be-gone pen.  Then I press down my seams... okay that's kind of a lie, sometimes I don't but you should.

Now onto the skirt (you can keep the iron on, you'll need it again).  Trace the skirt portion of your pattern onto your fabric.  The longer you make the fabric the bunchier your skirt will be.  I only had so much of this fabric left so my skirt is going to be less bunchier than I would like.  

Now it's time to iron again, this step I don't skip.  Fold the bottom of your skirt up.  I usually do about 3/4 of an inch.  You really should iron everything first it makes sewing much easier.

Flip your skirt over and sew the bottom edge.  If you look above I used a decorative stitch, you can just use a straight stitch but I find this is a fun time to play with your machine.  It's very rare I use all these funky stitches for anything else.  

Now you're going to use a straight stitch on the longest setting.  On my computerized machine it's at a 4.0 stitch length, if you have a dial turn it all the way up/down to get the longest stitch.  Sew all the way across the top of the skirt.  So you will have a rectangle piece of fabric with the bottom folded and sewn and just sewn straight across the top without a fold over.  Got that?!

Now you're going to pull one of the threads from the stitching you did at the top.  This is going to cause it to bunch or gather.  

Now we are going to pin the bodice to the skirt, right sides facing each other.  Pin as much as you think you need to keep it in place while you sew.  I personally do not sew over the pins, but I know people do.  I've had one too many needles break and fly towards my face. 

Sew the bodice to the ruffled up part of the skirt where you pinned.  You can kind of see the blue mark be-gone where my stitches are.  I didn't realize this photo was so blurry until now.  I will try and get a better photo tomorrow. (guess that means another dress to giveaway)

Okay so now the top is connected to the bottom.

Now we need to sew the back up.  Put the right sides together (when I say right side I mean the side with the print).  Sew about 3/4 of the way up.  My stitches stop below the pin I have there.  *note to self next time use colored thread so people can see.  Just remember if you go too far up you won't be able to get the dress on your doll.

For the longest time I couldn't figure out hoe to finish the back.  I always had this weird piece of fabric that I didn't know what to do with to give it a finished looked.  You can't just hop it off, well you can but it looks bad.

Ha! so I figured out that it needed to be folded over and sewn down.  I usually do this little bit of sewing by hand.  You will need to do the other side too.

See how neat the back looks!  

Turn it right side out and there you have it, a new dress.

You will need to sew on your snaps in the back too.

These are the snaps I use.

How was that?  Painless?  If you have questions please ask.  Oh and ignore my terrible chipping polish.

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