Our Clothes Category

Let’s talk capes. No, not the Renaissance fair kind, but the stylish every day kind. Capes are just one of those things you either find really attractive/elegant or silly. I’m of the former group. I find them simple and beautiful (when done right). I’m going to walk you through a tutorial for making a really easy cape out of flannel. But before I do I want you to know, you can simplify this way down if you are looking for a fast project. You don’t need the pockets or collar if you don’t want them. I tend to go crazy if I don’t have pockets, so I had to add them. You also don’t need to line it. I wanted something that would be useful in DC’s weather, so I opted for a warm liner so I could get some use out of it.

 

Materials:

1.75 yards flannel

1.75 yards liner (I choose thick velvet-ish fabric)

Buttons

Some scrap vinyl

Tassels

 

 

1. Fold fabric in half, then half again

2. Cut circle with 29” radius

3. Cut circle with a 3” radius out of the middle for the neck hole

4. Open up the circle, cut a straight line, opening up the cape

5. Now we are going to make the pleats where the pockets go. If you don’t want pockets (or pleats, skip to step 11)

-Measure 20” in at the bottom edge, mark

-Measure 3” past the first mark, mark this spot

-Tuck the 3” portion back on the underside so it points towards the opening

-Pin pleat along edge

6. Now we are going to cut the pleat open on the back side, about 13” in length. Roll this edge back once and stitch to finish.

8. Using the scraps from around your larger circle, cut the pockets by tracing your hand.

9. Sew each pocket right in to your pleats. You’ll sew along the top edge of each side first, and then sew the pocket itself together.

10. Top stitch the pleat as follows:

11. Lay out your cape, cut a copy out of the lining fabric.

12. Using the rest of the scraps from your big circle, cut a collar. I just used as much as I could, I didn’t measure or anything.  Sew pieces together, leaving bottom arc open. Then turn right-side-out, press and top stitch

13. Sew collar to right side of cape (1/4” seam). Then sew lining to the cap (1/2”), leaving an opening on the front straight part so you can turn it right side out.

14. Turn cape, press, finish opening. Now you can top stitch.

15. Now mark and add buttons to the front. I chose to have the buttons face inward so you wouldn’t see them

16. Put on the cap, mark where you want you “arm” to be defined. Stitch multiple times here, about ½” up.

17. Add tassels.

Done!!

Pin It

So my Dita Von Teese inspired wrap dress was such a success for the summer, I’ve decided to go a winter version. This is a traditional style wrap dress, it actually ties closed, unlike the other one which was a faux wrap. I honestly have no idea how long this took because I worked on it in like 15 or 30 minutes chunks when I had the time.

 

To start out I found this amazing knit at G Street for $3/yard. With my Living Social deal my purchase was ½ off ($25 for $50), so it was basically $1.50/yard. It’s a panel- print knit called “Bunny” and it has a pretty good weight to it; almost like a light sweater. I needed 3.5 yards because of the panel. So I made this dress for $5.25 + a closure. Pretty darn good.

 

****Before I go on I want to make a note: Even though we are working with a knit, I don’t recommend using elastic thread. It will bunch/ruffle the fabric and we want smooth seams. So instead use a small zig-zag. *****Oh and all seams are 0.5”*****

 

Here are the measurements you’ll need:

 

 

1. Cut two (opposite of each other) as follows:

2. For the upper back, cut 1:

 

3. For the skirt panels, cut 3:

 

4. The ties: cut 4

 

5. Sew ties together, turn right-side out, top stitch. Now you’ll have to strips

6. Assemble the panels, attach the skirt to the top, pleating in the excess in the skirt.

 

7. Sew Front panels to back panel at shoulder.

8. Trace arm hole, add seam allowance. Cut two as follows:

 

9. Sew front right panel to back panel along side seam.

10. Pin one tie strap in place on back panel at left side seam. Then sew together back panel, tie strap and front left panel along seam.

11.  Pin sleeve to dress, sew

12. Finish the neckline/side seams by rolling the edge

13. Hem the bottom

14. Attach the second tie strap to the outer edge of the right front panel

15. Attach hooks on the outer left panel and on the side seam which attaches the right front panel to the back panel. This is so when you put the dress on the left panel will stay secured with the hooks and the right panel is tied in place.

And that’s it!

My middle sister Angela gave me a hand-me-down sweater recently. It was too small for her, and since she’s much smaller than me, it is clearly to small for me. So instead of just giving it away, I decided to make a 3 part tutorial using the material from the sweater: Elbow patches, leg warmers, and a hat. I have them all set and ready to go so that they will auto-post on the following dates:

Leg Warmers: 11/30

Hat: 12/7

So let’s get started on the elbow patches. I have this black cardigan that I love, but I wore hole into the elbows. I saw this tutorial on A Beautiful Mess, but I wanted to do it my own way. I’m not a fan of the raw edge look, so for this tutorial I made it with finished edges.

1. For me, I didn’t need to mark the elbow locations…it was pretty obvious. But if your sweater doesn’t not have hole, put it on, mark your elbow

2. On a piece of paper, draw a heart the width of your sleeve

3. On your patch fabric, cut out 2 hearts

4. Cut out 2 of the same hearts in interfacing. Attach interfacing to back of patch hearts. Since we are working with a sweater, I added this step to help stabilize the fabric. It’s going to make for a much cleaner finish

5. Sew around your heart 1/4″ from the edge

6. Snip round edges like so. This helps with the turning in step 7

7. Press raw edges towards the back using your stitch as your guide. Your seam should end up on the side/edge of your patch when done

8. Pin patch to sweater. I recommend putting something hard inside the sleeve for this and for the sewing steps. I used my 4×4″ quilting square.

9. Hand sew the patch down. For this step, stitch along the seam you did in step 5. By stitching along the edge rather than the top, you’ll get a cleaner look.

Then you’re done! Hooray no more holes!

Pin It

So I set out to make this dress, you may remember from a Saturday sketch sometime ago. It was horrible. Somehow my numbers got totally screwed up and the waist ended up being more than an inch too small and the hips were about two inches too big…on each side! I have no idea what happened all I know is it was completely un-wearable.

But I had already tailored the upper half of the dress so well I couldn’t just though it out. So,

to the rescue!! Yea, I’m not kidding, IHJA is going high end. I saw this dress that I just fell for and decided that would be the perfect save to my disaster of a project. ***Bow Belt tutorial to follow***

What you’ll need:

-A button up shirt. I used one of Vlad’s that the sleeve shrunk on

-About 2 yards of fabric. I used a black twill because I liked the heft

-Zipper, invisible

 

1. If your shirt doesn’t already fit, you’ll need to tailor it. I’m not going to go into an extreme amount of detail here but here are the basics of what I did:

-Took in the sides, about 1” each side

-Took in the arms, about 2” at the top, tapering down to the normal width at the cuff (which meant I had to make the arm holes smaller as well)

- Added buttons in between each of the existing buttons so it won’t gape open because of the chest

2. Put on your shirt and find where it hits your natural waist. Mark with chalk front and back (you’ll need a buddy if you don’t have a body double)

3. Add 0.5” to you mark above and cut.

 

4. The benefit of starting with a men’s shirt is that the back generally has excess built in for better movement. There is usually a seam which goes across the shoulders, and then the bottom half is pleated into the seam. We like that, we are keeping it. Open that shoulder seam in the middle about 3”.

5. Cut straight up the back, but just the bottom half, not the shoulder piece. This is where the zipper will go.

6. Cut waist band. You’ll need to cut 2 front pieces (W) and 4 back pieces (B).You will want to cut them 3” wide so you end up with a 2” waistband. If you don’t have a pattern you use, please see the waist band portion of the Midi Skirt (But change the thickness) steps 3 &4.  Be sure to use your natural waist measurement as “Waist”

7. For each set of waist bands, inside and out, sew together the front and back pieces, 0.5” seam allowance

 

-7.a Finish the bottom edge of the inner waist band. Surge, binding tape or roll hem

8. Now we are going to pin the top to the outer waist band, right sides together. Be sure to match up the side seams. If you have excess on the front, pleat in equally on the left and right. This will give room for the chest. As for the back; hopefully you’ll have excess top that extends past the end of the waist band. We want to use that excess to make the dress more comfy. So you match up the end of the top with the end of the waist band. Make a pleat to work in the rest of the fabric at 5/8” away from the edge. This will put it right near the zipper, helping it blend.

9. Pin inner waist band on opposite side as the outer. So it will go: inner waist band, top, outer waist band.

10. For the skirt, I did a ¾ Circle skirt. To figure out the measurements, follow the diagram below.

11. Now we pin the skirt to the outer waist band. Stitch 0.5” seam allowance. Press allowance up

12. Pin down inner waist band so it covers the seam in step 11. On the outside, on the skirt, stitch as close as you can to the seam with out being in it. This will help the skirt lay better

13. Now you should have open edges running all the way down the back. Finish these edges by surging or binding tape. Pinking shears may also work, but I’m not certain.

 

14. Install the zipper so it will end just below the shoulder seam. I used a 22” zipper to make my life easier.

15. Tuck in raw edge and finish shoulder seam

16. Finish the seam below the zipper, the rest of the way of the dress.

17. Roll the hem for a nice, clean finish

All Done!!!

Pin It