Sewing

Along with having been bitten by the sewing bug, I'm kind of addicted to sewing blogs. I swear I find a new one to follow every week or so. So many great ideas and the online tutorials are absolutely AWESOME, especially if you're just beginning to sew. Here are a few of my favorite sewing blogs

craftiness is not optional

From an Igloo

MADE

Noodlehead

Samster Mommy

Ruffles and Stuff

Disney at Ruffles and Stuff has a great beginners guide to sewing here

I did not include craft blogs that I love, we'd be here all day!! :)

So Jess from craftiness is not optional just had her second little girl, which makes her very near and dear to my heart. Plus she makes ADORABLE little girl stuff which just plain ROCKS! Last week she featured this tutorial from Create and Delegate for fun ruffled dresses. And c'mon, who doesn't love a cute ruffle??

Here is my twist on this tutorial

I found two of these dresses at Target on the clearance rack, they were women's sizes large and extra large

can't go wrong for $5

I cut off the top (save the tie straps, they will be used later)

I then followed the tutorial for cutting the width and length of my dresses. When I cut the width I cut on an angle with the shape of the dress so my widest point (on the bottom) was the width I had originally come up with for the dress (did that make sense to anyone?)

After cutting I continued to follow the tutorial and sew my dress together

The tutorial has you attach straps with elastic in them. I had run out of elastic so I just cut off the tie straps from the original dress, shortened them and attached them to the front of the dress to create a halter look. I also made the elastic around the top of the dress about a 1/2 inch smaller that the girls chest measurement just so it would stay up easily.

Ta-da!

Here are my little models running around Grandma and Papa's back yard...so sweet

that is a bug catcher in Sophie's hand, best $1 my mom ever spent ;)

I love how these dresses turned out! I made them as a Father's Day gift for Ryan. He loves seeing his girls all dressed up so cute! :)

Next project: outfits for the Fourth of July

Happy Sewing!