Peter Pan Collar Sorbetto

This is another top that I've sewn using the tried and tested Sorbetto pattern from Colette Patterns.

This time, I've added a peter pan collar and sleeves.  I trace the neckline and self drafted the collar which is only on the front and bound the seams with black cotton bias tape. I've interfaced the collar to make it stays the shape.

The birdcage chiffon is from Spotlight which is surprisingly not difficult to sew. I was attracted by the cute print and the subtle blue and turquoise collar of the birds.  The collar compliment the black on the birdcage nicely.

For the sleeve, I've use the same sleeve piece from my earlier yellow blouse which fits the sorbetto really well. I bind the sleeve hem with the same black bias tape.

Here's the front view on me. I wore it to work and many thought it was store bought. I'm very happy! Next time I think I will make the neckline smaller and change it to a dress?

Happy Birthday, My little Princesses

It's mid of January and I've not posted much except for the First Day of School post.  Lamentation seems to be the common theme for the recent month : (

January is always a busy month for me with the girls going to school and both of their birthdays fall in January too. As a tradition, I'll try to make a new dress for the girls for their birthday. This year, they wanted to be Disney Princesses - Belle and Aurora.

My eldest requested for Belle and I just love how it turned out. The chiffon shoulder shrug and overskirts really make the costume look so 'Belle', don't you think? The details on the overskirt is achieved using 8 thin elastic band. It was so easy and final effect so magnificent.

Princess Bell and Side Kick - Little Aurora!

I found this shop at Chinatown that sells lots of sewing accessories and found this chiffon rose in the exact yellow for the dress. It's quite pricy at $7 per yard but I love how the rose enhanced the look. Here I use the rose around the waist band and on the shrug.

Little sister is into Pink now so she wanted to be Aurora.  I needed to make her an overskirt so that her dress is like her sister but with a different style. She's into that 'I want the same as Jie Jie (sister)' mode now.  So, also made her a shoulder shrug in white satin and added a chiffon rose.  The shrug limited her movement so she took it off most of the time!

Here you can have a better view of the chiffon rose waistband. I hand sewn them onto the dress. The chiffon overskirts was just fold over and attach to the bodice before sewing to the main satin skirt.  I bought all the fabric from Arab street at $4 per yard.

I got their cakes from Bengawan Solo for $40 per Kg but it was delicious. I can't bake so I'll leave that to the professional.

I'm so glad I've finished the dresses way ahead of the time so it was less stressful. I got more order now for a Cinderella(s) and Rapenzul(s)!

Tapered chiffon top

I'm so pleased with this tapered chiffon top that I made using a yard chiffon that I got on sale from chinatown at $3. It was a steal cause the blue chiffon was so pretty.

Since chiffon does fray alot, I decided to use french seams to treat all the seams.  For the neckline and sleeve, I fold over twice and enclose the raw edges.

I especially like the way I tried to match the checked lines on the chiffon. Added the small pocket in front since it appears to be on most chiffon tops that I saw in the shop. Next time, I'll make it bigger though.

For the hem, I did a rolled hem using my serger since I was having trouble sewing the curvy edge.

I cut the front to be shorter than the back so that it will have a tapered effect.  I wish I had made it longer behind. Oh well, nex time then.  Oops, I looks so awkward! 

Didn't follow any pattern for this as I trace my existing top for this.  I'll be making another version of this with a longer tapered back and more loose fitting to have a flowy effect.  

Twirly satin chiffon skirts X 7!

I made some satin chiffon skirts for my girl and her friends at school for their year end graduation concert.

I got a real bargain at the Sultan Road shop.  All the 4 yards Satin and 4 yards chiffon for only $30! All the cutting and sewing took me 2 full days but I'm happy with the result. 

Want to try make one? It's quite simple but could be a tad bit messy because of the slippery chiffon and fraying satin. But I'll share a tutorial here if you are still keen. I'm sure you will be happy with the end results!

The skirt is for a skinny tall 6 year old girl.  You can always adjust the length to suit your girl.

Waist = 21"

Length = 14.5"

Material

0.5 yard of Satin

0.5 yard of Chiffon

1" elastic band

matching threads

Cutting Instruction

• For main satin skirt, cut a rectangle of 14" X 56".  The width of the satin is 56" so I've used the entire width and just cut the length that I want.
• For waistband, cut 2 long stripes of 4" X 33" each.
• For chiffon overlay, cut long stripe of 11" X 45".  The width of the chiffon is 45" so I've used the entire width. The length of the chiffon overlay should be about 3" shorter than your main skirt.
• Cut elastic band of length 21".

Sewing Instruction
Main skirt
1. Fold the skirt Right Side Facing so that the short edge are aligned. Pin and sew with 0.25" seam allowance. You can serged or zig zag the seams. Press seams open.

2. Serge the hem and waist area. Then, create a narrow hem by folding 0.25" and press. Then, fold 0.25" again and sew.

press with low heat iron to create a nice crease

sew the narrow hem

3. Turn your tension dial to 6.5 and move to the biggest stitch on your sewing machine.  Sew close to the top of the skirt and your skirt will gather automatically. Adjust the tension accordingly on your machine to make a nice even gather.  Set aside first.

Waist Band
1. Sew the 2 waistbands Right Side Facing together along one of the short edge with 0.25" seam allowance. Serge all the raw edge and press seams open.

2. For the other short edge, first pin them together, Right Side Facing. Measure 1" from the top and make a marking with your disappearing pen. Make another marking at 1" marking from the first marking you've made.

3. Start sewing the edge with 0.25" seam allowance and stop at the 1" mark. Remember to back stitch at the beginning and end of the stitch.  Then snip off your thread.

4. Place your needle to the next marking and start sewing from there to the end of the edge.  You've just sewn the waistband loop with a 1" gap in the seam. Press seam open.

5. Fold the waistband, Wrong Side Facing, into half along the long side to make 2" X 33".  The opening that you've just sewn will be just below the folded line. Press with iron to form fold line.

6. Measure 1" from the folded line and pin. Then, sew the 1" line along the waistband loop. You have just made a casing for the elastic band. Set aside.

see the opening at the seam of the waistband?
later you can insert the elastic band here.

Phew! I hope I've not lost you. If you are still with me, continue to read on...

Chiffon overlay
1. As I'm using the full width of the chiffon, I only need to take care of the top and bottom edge. Using the narrow hem option on my serger, I serged the chiffon using a different colored thread.

It's a bit tricky but just hang in there and you will get yourself a decent narrow hem. Your serger will give you more instruction on how to set the tension dials and stitch length. If you do not have a serger, don't panic, you can also manually sew a narrow hem.

2. For the raw side of the chiffon, fold in 1/8" to the wrong side and sew. Do the same for the other seam. Or you can also use your serger to treat the edge if you like.

3. Sew a gathering stitch (up the tension and biggest stitch width) along the top edge of the chiffon, just like what you did for the satin main skirt. Try to keep close to the top edge. Adjust the gathers so that the chiffon is about the same width as the waistband.

Assembly
1. Adjust the satin skirt width to be the same length as the waistband. Then, attach the waistband to the satin skirt, align raw edge, with right side of the fabric facing each other.  The folded part of the waistband is towards the bottom.

Try to align the side seams. I've used clips for this purpose as I'm afraid pins will leave markings on the satin. Clips are also stronger and helps to prevent the fabric from shifting.

2. Once you are satisfied with the gathers, attach the chiffon overlay on top of the satin skirt, align raw edge. You will need to remove the clip one by one and insert the chiffon between the waistband and skirt.

I've arrange for the chiffon side seam to be at the side of the main skirt, overlapped slightly. You can choose to put them in the middle centre if you prefer.

3. Using a slightly bigger stitch (2.5), Sew the waistband to the 2 skirts, using 0.25" seam allowance. Try to hide your gathering stitch in the seam allowance.  You will need to remove these loose stitch after you have sewn the waistband together.

4. It's quite thick here so sew slowly. Serge the raw edges so that it is keep neat. You can also zig zag the edge.

5. Flip the chiffon out of the way and top stitch the satin skirt down so that the seam allowance are sewn down. I didn't sew the chiffon together as I wanted the chiffon to be free so that it will be more bouncy.

6. Insert the elastic band and sew the edge down.  As the opening on the waistband is treated, it is easier for you to take out the waistband and change the length anytime you want.

Ta-da! Your pretty twirly satin chiffon skirt!  All 7 of them!

Oh! I even made one for the teacher. Since I've run out of fabric, I've inserted the chiffon as a layer after the satin to lengthen it. Still looks good : )

Enjoy

A birthday skirt

My niece had her 6 year old birthday celebration last Sunday. I made her a baby blue pettiskirt. Made them using the same tutorial that I refered to when I made the 2 pink skirts for my girls.


I got these lovely soft chiffon in strips from here.  If I'm making them for sale, probably I'll order more because they are really very soft and nice. As this is the 3rd skirt I've made, I've managed to cut the sewing time to 3 hours. How? Instead of cutting the length of the ruffle layer of the skirt, I just let my sewing machine ruffle them and measure the length once a while against the 2nd chiffon layer so that I get the same length without having to adjust the gathers too much. Save lots of time to adjust the longgggg chiffon.


It's abit long on her though, she's a small build 6 year old. I made her the same size as my older girl who is taller. Used less chiffon in lenght so that there is less volume since she is smaller build. Overall, the skirt still looks lovely and fluffy.

Pretty pettiskirt

My wishlist has one item down and that's a pettiskirt! I've managed to make one for my girl this week. I've followed the tutorial from Made-it-and-love-it. It was a great tutorial. The pretty picture of her girl made me want to try one immediately. But wait, gotta order the non-fray chiffon overseas.

I took her advice to order from here and the service was great! My delivery was delayed due to the mixup at the Singapore Post office but the sale person Martin was specially nice and patience with me in directing me to the relevant people. Finally got it last week. I order 2 colour schemes as I wanted to make 2 for my 2 girls - blue and pink!

Since I"m kinda want to stretch my dollar, I order double of the quantity for 1 pettiskirt so that I can save more in bulk purchase. But, the result is, I got to measure and cut the longggg slippery chiffon. It got especially messy when I've to measure out 1080" TWICE! Sigh..on hindsight, should have just order the exact amount to save my time in measuring...Anyway, I've used my towel holder to help me roll out the chiffon for cutting : )

The ruffle part is particularly therapetic! I love how the sewing machine does the job and it felt magical.

And from the ruffles, came the final skirt!

skirt is really full as it's double layers and so so soft!

Notice the big safety pin infront?? I haven't got the ribbon in the correct pink shade so it's still 1% undone. Will sew that in later. I did 1 thing different from her tutorial. That is the elastic band. Didn't put it till I finish the whole skirt which I find it to be easier since you don't have the long pieces of ribbons getting into your way. The whole chiffon and ruffles really can messed up the sewing.

This is really a labour of love. It's not difficult but really time consuming to measure and sewing through longggg longgg pieces of chiffon. But the result is really amazing! Love the pink and can't wait for my girl to wear them. Will post picture of her wearing when I get the ribbon done!

If you are thinking of doing this, go ahead and order the chiffon. It's really save alot of time cutting the width. I don't see the pre-cut ones in Singapore. I've ordered mine 6" wide as my girl is 6 years old and needed the length. The satin waist piece is bought from Arab Street at $4/yard. But you actually don't use 1 yard for this. I intend to use the left over chiffon and satin to make a match top.

Now, I need to take a break before I start on the other blue one for the younger sister. Anyone wants to join me in sewing the pettiskirt? We can sew together virtually : )