Sew Along Design Contest Finalists

Thank you to everyone who entered the "Sew Along Design Contest" through The Cottage Home Flickr Group.  There were some very creative entries which made it very hard to choose, but we narrowed it down to the top five.  In no particular order, the finalists are..........

Natalie from Our Old Southern House

 From Mama Reita

Amber Lou from The Paisley Cupcake

From Jessica

From Stiej

Voting is now open in the left side-bar of the blog underneath the "welcome" section.  So vote for your favorite look and the person you want to win the $50 gift certificate to Fairytale Frocks and Lollipops.  Voting will be open until Sunday, July 10, 2011 at midnight (CST).  Good luck to all the finalists!

Playdate Outfit Sew Along: Day 5 - Capris/Shorts

If you've made it this far, I want to say thank you for staying with me.  I've had a lot of fun sewing with you all so far!  And I hope you guys are having fun too.

So now we are moving on to the capris/shorts.  I decided to make the capris for my little lady, so I will be referring to them as such through this post.

First we need to add the cuff to the capris.  Place the cuff on top of the bottom of the pants, right sides together and sew together at the bottom edge.  Do this on all four pant pieces.  Press seams open and then press the right side as well.

If you notice, I marked my back pant pieces with a safety pin so I can easily tell them apart from the front pieces......sometimes it's really hard to tell.

Next line up a front and back piece, right sides together and sew down the long center curve of the pants.  Press seams open.  I opted to use my serger here because the pants were not lined.  If you don't have a serger (which I'm sure a lot of you don't), then just be sure to use your pinking shears to finish the edges to prevent fraying.

Open the pieces you just sewed together.  Line up the front and back pieces with one another, right sides together and sew around the crotch area.  Press seams open.

Now you have what pretty much looks like a pair of pants.  Stitch both side seams, right sides together, but make sure to stop before you sew the cuff as the pattern instructs.

Next, press the cuff to make the seams for the side slits.  Pin in place and stitch according to pattern directions.  I'm not 100% that I did this correctly, but it seemed to work out well.

Above is what the cuff side slits will look like after you have stitched them into place.

Next we need to hem the capris.  Turn the hem up 1/2" and then another 1/2" towards the wrong side of the pants and stitch into place.  This is where I love to use my hem gauge - it comes in very handy for this step!

Now we move onto the waist-band.  Stitch the front and back of the waist-band, right sides together, at the side seams.

I don't know if you recall, but I think the back waist-band piece (H) was labeled incorrectly as front waist-band, so don't let this confuse you.

Press your waist-band side seams and then press your waist-band in half.

Open your waistband back up and sew your elastic into the back waist-band piece at the side seams.  Make sure to stitch this back and forth several times so it is nice and secure.  Again, this is another spot where I think I did what the instructions called for, but I'm not 100% sure.

Once you've sewn in the elastic at the side seams fold the waist-band back in half.  Place the raw edge of the waist-band in line with the raw edge of the top of the capris.  Stitch into place and press seams open.  I found this to be slightly tricky with the elastic already sewn in, but just work with it and it will turn out just right.

Here is what your waist-band will look like once you have pressed your seams.  It will be nice and flat on the front and gathered with elastic on the back.  A flat front pant gives a really nice look on a little girl because it reduces any of the bulk in the front that elastic might cause.

So, that's it!!  We're done.  If you have your own labels, now would be a good time to sew one into your garment!  And now it's time to try your outfit on your little lady and be proud of all your hard work.  There is nothing better than having my girls LOVE one of the outfits I've made for them.  It makes all the time (and sometimes frustration) well worth it!

So here's my completed outfit for Miss Savannah Rose.  I added a woven trim at the bottom of the top just to add a little interest.

Thank you guys SO much for joining me on this sewing journey.  I hope you had fun and maybe learned a little something along the way.  I know, I did! 

And don't forget, click HERE to add your pictures to The Cottage Home Flickr Pool to enter The Cottage Home "Sew Along" contest.  Next week I will reveal the finalists and then the readers will get to vote on their favorite look.  The prize is a $50 gift certificate to Fairytale Frocks and Lollipops to use on anything in the shop - who wouldn't want that, right?

Playdate Outfit Sew Along: Day 4 - The Flower

So now that we've got our top or dress completed, it's time to add the fun, accent flower.  This part of the pattern is completely optional, but I think it adds a nice little bit of whimsy to the outfit.  You can get as creative as you would like with this accessory, but I opted to follow the pattern and just add an extra-large fabric covered button to the center.

You've got to start by cutting 8 petals.  I used the accent fabric for the petals, but you could use whatever fabric you like......maybe even something less matchy and more bold.....it's up to you.

Fold your petals in half, wrong sides together, and stitch down one side.  I clipped some of the bulk off the very tip, so that they would be easier to turn right side out.

After you've sewn all eight petals, turn them right side out.  Try using a sharper point (like a point-turner) to really get the corners nicely turned.  Press with seams down the middle according to pattern instructions.

For the next step, I ran a gathering stitch across four petals at a time.  I then pulled the bobbin thread to gather the petals.  Once I had them gathered tight enough, I tied the ends of the threads together to hold them in place.  I also opted not to top-stitch each petal just because I prefer this look.

Place four of your petals on top of the other four petals in an alternating position.  Then run a stitch around in a circle to hold them in place.

Here is my flower before the addition of the button.  Choose your button and add it to the center of the flower.  I stitched the button onto the flower at the same time I sewed it to my top.

And there you have it - a fun, flower accessory.  I love the idea of adding this flower to a headband or even adding a pin on the back.  I think it would be really fun to make one of these for myself to pin to my purse or cardigan when Savannah's wearing this outfit.  A little bit of "mommy and me" never hurt anyone, right?

Tomorrow is day 5 of our sew along where we will be working on the capris/shorts.  If you've reached your final destination of the sew along and were just doing the dress, don't forget to add pictures of your completed sew along look to The Cottage Home Flickr Pool if you want to be considered for the contest and $50.00 gift certificate.  And for the rest of you, see you tomorrow!

Click HERE to visit The Cottage Home Flickr Pool

Playdate Outfit Sew Along: Day 3 - Top/Dress (2nd Half)

So it's time to finish up our top/dress!  How are we feeling?  Good, I hope......we're in the home stretch, so bare with me.  Yesterday we stopped after finishing up our arm holes and shoulder ruffles, so now we'll move on to the side seams and finishing.

Since you've probably just pressed your shoulder ruffles and arm holes, you will now need to pull the exterior fabric and the lining completely apart (we do this a lot with this pattern).  Place the right sides of the exterior fabric and the right sides of the lining fabric together at both sides seams.  You are now going to run a stitch starting at the beginning point of the two lining fabrics coming together and running all the way to the end of where the exterior fabrics come together.  This is going to cause us to have no exposed seams on the interior of the garment - yipee!!

Here is what your seam will look like on one side.  You will need to run this stitch on both sides.  It's pretty much just sewing a straight line though you may have to turn your foot a tad bit at the arm hole.

I like to clip a line where the exterior and lining fabrics come together under the arm hole.  I find the arm holes lay much more flat this way.  You totally don't have to do this step.......it's just a little extra thing I like to do.

Turn your garment right side out and press the side seams open and press all the way around the arm holes.  I like to press the exterior seams and lining seams separately to make sure they are both fully open. 

This next step is where I took some liberties with the way I like to do a lined garment.  So for the next few steps you can totally ignore me and follow the actual instructions or give this finishing technique a try.  Let's see if I can explain this correctly..........

Currently you have your garment pressed and turned nicely with the right sides out.  At the lower side seam (doesn't matter which one), pull the lining fabric away from the exterior fabric.  We need to pull them apart because we are going to flip the fabrics so they will now have their right sides facing.

In the picture above, you can see the corner where I started turning towards the bottom of the picture.  It's going to feel sort of awkward and weird but just go with it.  You want to try and turn the entire bottom of the dress so the right sides are facing each other.

In the picture above you can see that I now have the right side of my lining facing the right side of my exterior fabric.  I have pinned this in place.  You want to sew along the bottom with a 1" seam allowance (I usually do 1/2" but a 1" hem is what the pattern calls for).  Sew 3/4 of the way across, then leave a 4" gap and finish sewing to the other edge.  See picture below......

Notice how I have left a 3" - 4" opening at the bottom of the top.  Pull the rest of the dress through this little opening.  Again, it's going to feel a little strange, but trust me.

Now that you have pulled the top through the opening, press the bottom seam.  You will have a 3" - 4" opening so you need to make sure to press that under to line up with the bottom of the top.  Place a few pins to hold it in place.

Next, top-stitch around the entire bottom using a 1/8" seam allowance.  This will catch the opening and make it so the entire bottom is closed.  You can use this technique to make garments reversible as well.  Personally, I fell that it ensures that the bottom of any garment is nice and neat and the bottom seam is perfect.  Again, you can totally ignore me if I lost you along the way.........if so, just follow the instructions in the pattern for a more typical way to hem.

The pattern now instructs for some additional top-stitching and button holes.  Again, the button hole placement didn't seem to given exactly, so on the size small, I opted to do four buttons spaced about 4.5" apart.  But you can do them however you would like.

I'm not going to go into details in regards to making button-holes since everyone's machine is different.  I use a button-hole foot attachment with my machine that pretty much does all the work for me.

After you've sewn your button holes, open them with your seam ripper.  I place a pin at the end of each hole so as to make sure I don't rip through the entire thing.  I've been VERY thankful several times that I took the time to take this extra step.

Finally, finish your button holes with fray check or other sealer so that you prevent any additional fraying in the wash.

Whew!  And that's pretty much it!!  We will focus on the optional flower tomorrow.  But for now your top and dress is complete.  If you've made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back.  This was not a garment for the beginner sewer so you should be very proud of yourself!!

Here are a few pictures of the front and back of my top.  And do you think my little lady likes this outfit?  You bet she does (which makes it even more rewarding)!!

Tomorrow we'll work on the flower, which is pretty easy, and we'll move onto the capris/shorts on Friday.  See you then!