Jalie 3130– Shirt Dress

I know the first time put on the Jalie button down shirt, I knew I would be making a shirt dress. I used the same fabric as I used for my Vanessa pants. It’s a rayon-linen woven and I really love it. I went to JoAnn’s and also bought the teal and dark red color too. For this dress, I extended it about nine inches and kept the same curved hem. Isn’t it fun? I was going to make a self-fabric belt but I ran out of fabric. Boo. I might still go back and get some fabric for a belt because I think that would be the perfect finishing touch.

I could have made it more fitted in the hips but I like it loose and swingy like this.

I made all the topstitching green and added green buttons.

I love, love, love my new machine. It has the best stitches and makes the nicest buttonholes. Seriously. I did all 14 buttonholes in, like, eight minutes. And they are perfect. Perfect. I have this automatic buttonhole attachment and it’s totally automatic. You just push your foot down and it goes around and stops when it is done.

Oops, I did all the topstitching in green, except this. I could have just put green thread in the bobbin, but I didn’t. Why? Who knows.

Look at this beautiful stitching.

Next up? An easy Ottobre dress.

Tutorial: Adding a Pocket to Your Loulouxe!

Remember how I said I’d write a tutorial? Well, here it is!!

Find Pattern Piece C (Skirt Back) and make it a full-sized pattern piece. As it is, it’s an “on the fold” piece. Make sure and mark your center line because that will be important later.

Find a piece of fabric that is larger than the pattern piece.

I used a 12-14” invisible zipper. You could also use a regular ol’ zipper too. Figure out where you want the zipper. You probably want it somewhere toward the top but do not go so high that you get right next to the seam allowances.
 

Eyeball where you want the opening to be and make a nice, straight cut across the entire length of the fabric piece.

This is where a ruler and rotary cutter are nice. Right now you are just eyeballing it. We’ll get precise later once the zipper is in.

Install your zipper. Since I used an invisible zipper, I used my invisible zipper foot to install it.  I did not use any interfacing but this knit is pretty stretchy but also stable.

Same thing but from the back.

Here’s where we start getting precise. On your pattern piece, draw a perpendicular line where you want your zipper. Take your full pattern piece and put it on top of your pieced fabric.

Now line up both edges of this horizontal line with your zipper. This ensures that your zipper opening will be straight across horizontally.

Once you think everything is lined up, cut out your piece. Make you DO NOT CUT OFF YOUR ZIPPER TOP! You will probably need to unzip your fabric piece BEFORE you cut to avoid doing that.

Cut out a second piece of fabric that will go behind your zippered piece. You can see here I basted my zipper opening closed. Otherwise, there is a the very real possibility that you will forget there is no zipper stop and pull your zipper head right off. Don’t do that, it’s annoying.

Baste the two layers together and treat them as one piece for the remainder of the construction process. My serger dislikes going over plastic zipper tape, so I always also go over this seam with my sewing machine to make sure those stitches won’t come out. Also, if you are using a metal zipper you SHOULD NOT sew over it. You need to remove the zipper teeth.

Here’s my skirt partially constructed. The only double layer is the one piece. Assemble the rest as stated in the directions! See? It’s EASY!!

Finally Up and Running!

I’m not going to lie. My house is in shambles, my purse is missing at the moment, and I have no idea where the moose meat is for dinner. But you know what? My sewing room is up and running and that’s something. I actually made something and it’s cute. It’s a total hack of this type of shirt (from Saks):

I, of course, used my Jalie TNT 2805 t-shirt. It was really easy. And pardon the not smiling. All the other pictures are too fuzzy, not good angles of the shirt, or something else. I’m not sure I’m in love with this print either. And can you tell it was taken by a little person, with a phone, from far away. Siiiigh. This, people, is why I have my own camera (somewhere) and a tripod (also somewhere).

 

Because I am that lame, I did not take pictures during construction. This is a super easy hack. You just cut it out like normal. Then you eyeball the amount and cut it off the top of the sleeves.

 

Then, hem or coverstitch the cut-off section of sleeve.

 

Oh look, directions. It’s easy. Trust. Notes for next time. I will open up the neckline a little and try the 3/4 length sleeves. The fit is nice and the cut-out is about right. I may make it a tiny bit smaller next time.

 

I probably will only be posting a bit on my blog while I try to organize my new house and deal with the holiday season. Fun fact: We hosted Thanksgiving this year with camp chairs and tables on saw horses. There were 25 people and we ate two turkeys, ham, and a prime rib. (And I got an Instant Pot and I’m in love.)

 

More later! Promise!

Jalie 2805 Hack - T-shirt to Dress

Jalie 2805 is just a t-shirt pattern. A boring ol’ knit top pattern that can be the base for so many things. So. Many. Things. I just adore this pattern. I’ve used it as a “boring ol’ knit top” too because it fits well every time and there are four different necklines and four different sleeve options. Anyway, I’ve really been on this graphic black-and-white kick for a while now and I had this fun knit, and I wanted something fun and easy. And zebra dress was born! Here I’m wearing it with my red leather Burda Obi belt from 2009!!

 

I love, love, love this belt from the back.

 

You can see the bodice in the front is a little too high. When I wear a thin belt, the belt hangs on my natural waist which is about an inch lower than the seam.

 

The back is about exactly where my natural waist is.

 

You can see even with this tick, chunky belt that it is below the seam. I hate that! I do love these shoes though.

 

Instead of using a t-shirt type neckline, I folded it under and stitched. I wanted the neck a bit more open.

 

And what the heck kind of fabric is this stuff? It’s kind of crinkly on the top layer and smooth underneath. It has lots of horizontal stretch and a little vertical stretch. I assume it’s a double knit because of the two distict layers (one crinkly and one flat). I’m sure it is mostly polyester. I bought this at the National City Swap Meet. It was $2.00/yard and I really like it, I just don’t know what to call it.

Quick Directions for making your own:

1. I used Jalie 2805 and estimated where I thought my waist would be (note to myself: add an inch to this, you do-do!). On this pattern, the waist seems to be where the side seam notches are. Remember to add a seam allowance to this new “cut line”. When I sewed the top, I made extra wide seam allowances at the waist so it would be more fitted.
2. I then went to the Circle Skirt App by By Hand and typed in my measurements. I used the Quarter skirt. For my waist measurement, I used the circumference of my t-shirt bodice. I originally wanted a half circle skirt, by didn’t have enough fabric. Oh, and this is the “mini” length so you can see it isn’t that mini.
3. Sew up your skirt, attach it to your bodice and do all the hems. Voila, new fun dress!

Jalie 3247 - Crop Top Hack

Today I realized I don’t have many cute, easy sporty tops that I can wear without a sports bra. My kids and I have been doing a lot of races recently (3k, 5k, etc.) and I’m often screaming cheering them on from the side lines. No one would ever call me competitive, *cough, cough*. Anyway, sometimes, I have to add an extra “helpful hand” by running the last mile or so with them to “motivate” them. Again, *cough, cough*. (It’s totally legal, these are just fun runs and not for times or anything.) I usually wear running clothing to these events because I do end up in the chute sometimes and run for very short periods of time.  Today I decided I need some more tops for these occasions. Enter Jalie 3247. I’ve made the bottoms before and turned them into a swimsuit.


Today I turned the crop top into this. Underneath is a sports bra. I couldn’t run a marathon with it, but it does nicely for these little short distances.


It covers well in all the right places and the back straps are really comfortable.


Aren’t they colorful? These are leftover scraps from this FunkiFabrics lycra.


Do you see I just happened to have (from NCSM) black sparkle FOE??


Basically I just made a regular and long version of Jalie 3247 and put them together as one. The only really difference is that the band on the bottom of the shelf-bra is not rolled up in the fabric, and is instead just sewn on. I didn’t want a roll of fabric and elastic to show through my outer fabric. Also I wanted to minimize any seams against my skin.


Don’t mind my “octopus legs”. I was keeping them long until I decided how long to make the straps. Since these pictures, I’ve snipped off the extra length.


Here’s how I did it in a nutshell. I cut a short and long front and back. I lengthened the front and back by looking at Jalie 2805 and just eyeballing it.


I put the short version inside and treated them as one when I applied the FOE.



Then you just follow the Jalie directions. Make the ties, fold over the straps to make a casing for the straps to go through, attach the straps to the back of the top. Like I said the only thing I did differently is to attach the red band (bottom of the shelf bra) directly to the lining fabric.


Ta da!!! Do you love it? I love it. I can see many more of these in the future!!!