Out to Sea Dress Tutorial for Sarah Jane Studios

Sarah Jane's new Out To Sea fabric is finally in stores!  I love it.  Not only is the fabric awesome, but Sarah has put together an Out To Sea Blog Tour with DIY's from all the things you saw in her Quilt Market booth.  Yup, awesome.

{Sarah's photos, above}

Sarah sent me a sketch of a dress idea she had in her head and asked if I could make it.  So I channeled Little Engine and said "I think I can."  I got to work with some practice patterns and after a healthy amount of therapeutic seam ripping and half a bag of Nestle Toll House (semisweet, it helps me concentrate) I got it.

I love the dress,  and I love the fabric, and I love that she's sharing all of it with you!  Here it is:

Notes before you begin:

• This tutorial is not for beginner sewers.  I don't go into detail on basic sewing techniques.
• I always buy more fabric than what the pattern suggests, especially when it's totally cute and I know I can use it later for other projects.  This way I'm not stressed out if I make the wrong cut or rip the fabric with my seam ripper, etc.  More is better.
• Read the tutorial all the way through to make sure you understand all the steps and have a good visual idea of what you need.  If something is unclear, email me and I am happy to help.
• Always read a couple steps ahead before you sew something together or make a cut, there may be a note you don't want to miss.  
• This is a tutorial, not a pattern.  I explain the steps for you to make your own template/pattern, but it helps if you are able to take measurements and try the dress on who you're making it for.
• Your seam ripper is your best friend.  Don't stress out if you need to use it, often.  Making mistakes makes us better.

What you'll need:

• 1/2 yard Out to Sea by Sarah Jane, Pirate Stripe {Raspberry}
• 1 1/2 yards Out to Sea by Sarah Jane, My Favorite Ship {Breeze}
• White and Navy Blue All Purpose Thread
• 1 7-9" White Invisible Zipper
• 1/2 yard muslin or scrap fabric (for your practice pattern)
• Piece of Pellon Thick Stabilizer, or craft paper, wrapping paper, posterboard (something to use as your pattern)
• Scissors, Straight Pins, Pencil, Black and Red pens, Measuring Tape, Iron

For the Pattern:

• By "scoop" I mean not a tee shirt with a high neck.  It doesn't need to be a huge scoop.
• Choose a tee shirt that fits snug, not really loose.

For the Top:


For the Armhole Binding:

• Give the top a nice tug under that binding to make sure it's caught good and tight.  I had to redo my binding twice because I didn't get it tucked in enough.

For the Neckline:

• In hindsight, I would turn your dress inside out and make this mark on the WRONG side of your fabric.  Pencil washes out, no big deal, but marking on the wrong side is always better.

• If you made that mark on the WRONG side of you fabric first, you don't need to mark it again on the square.  Just pin your square on and follow the pencil line on the other side when you sew it.

• Emphasis on PRESS WELL.  This part may be tricky and the best advice I can give is to keep tugging and pressing.

• Yeah, don't worry about the pencil.  But it still bugs me.
• The reason we do this with the V is because there needs to be space for the knot of your cute bow or else the dress just looks all wonky.  We don't like wonky.

For the Collar:

• neck measurement" x  2 + 15" = collar piece
• The width of your collar pieces should always be 2".

• Just press over ONE end.  Not both.

For the skirt:

• We do this so there isn't a wonky seam right down the middle of the dress.  This way the seams line up nicely with the side seams on the top.

For the Zipper:

• Use a LOW setting on your iron so you don't melt your zipper!
• There's a great video tutorial here on using invisible zippers HERE.  I don't have an invisible zipper foot.  They're nice, but you don't HAVE to have one.

Finishing the Dress:

• No need to trim the the zipper.   And I don't finish this seam because it's tricky when you're serger gets close to the the zipper.   (yes, i'm making fun of my typo)

• Before doing your hem, try the dress on your little girl to make sure you get the right length you want here.  Sarah Jane wanted her dress to be right above the knee, which is best.  If you want it longer, or shorter, just trim the bottom of your dress until it's 2 1/2" LONGER than where you want the bottom of the hem to be.

 

FINISHED!

Make sure you take pictures of your dress and add them to Sarah's Out to Sea Flickr Page!

You can buy her fabric from these guys.