Pintuck Top Tutorial

 Sometimes when I'm working on a project I'll jot down notes on a paper, you know, just in case I decide to write up a tutorial. When I started this maternity dress in the summer I thought that I'd share a full tutorial with you.  Well, half way through the project I realized there wasn't time, and I rushed to get the dress finished in time for a wedding.

I did however, have some photos and notes from the making of the bodice.  So seven months later, I'm sharing a few tips on creating the pintucks on the top, and finishing off the arms and neckline with elastic trim.

The bodice of the dress is basically a cropped cap sleeve top. You can find my notes and instructions on creating a cap sleeve t-shirt here.  I pulled out my go to cap sleeve pattern, and cropped it below the bust, resulting in an empire waisted dress.

I then pulled out my ol' taylor's chalk, and began marking where I wanted my pintucks to sit on my front pattern piece.  Basically,  at the neckline, the pintucks sit 3/4" apart, at the bottom they flare out to be 1 1/2" apart.  The center pintuck is 4 1/2" long, the two to the side are 4", the two further out are 3 1/2" long, and the outermost pintucks are 3 " long.

Now I don't have any decent photos of the actual sewing of the pintucks, but I'll do my best to explain the process.

You will pick up your fabric, and fold the fabric along once of your pintuck marking lines.  Make sure that the wrong sides of your fabric are facing each other when the fabric is folded.  At this point it would be helpful to put a pin at the bottom of your pintuck  to indicate where your stopping point is.

Begin stitching at the top (neckline) of your tuck.  Stitch very close to the fold of the fabric, no more than 1/8" away from the edge.  When you get to the bottom of your pintuck you will then slightly alter the direction of your stitching line, so that you stitch off of the folded edge.  Backstitch to secure stitching, and clip the threads very close to the fabric.  You will repeat this step for each of your pintucks. When the fabric is unfolded a teeny tiny tuck is left.

 I used this same technique for the pintuck sunburst top, with an additional two pintucks on each side.  It is a really subtle embellishment that dresses up a plain top.

After finishing the pintucks, I sewed the front and back bodice pieces together at the shoulder seams.  I then serged the raw edges of the neckline and the arm holes.  I then measured the circumference of the neck opening, and the length of the sleeves.  

I then cut my elastic trim so that it was 3/4 the length of the sleeves and the circumference of the neck.

To attach the elastic trim to the sleeves, you will first want to find the center point of your elastic trim. Pin the right side of the elastic trim to the right side of your bodice pieces at the shoulder seams. Now stretch your elastic trim and pin the trim ends to the ends of your sleeves.  Stretch your elastic trim, and pin in along the length of the sleeve, taking care that the fabric and elastic are evenly distributed.

 Stitch down your elastic trim close the edge of the elastic (closest to the decorative edge. Once your trim is stitched in place, turn the trim toward the wrong side of the material and press.  Topstitch along the length of the sleeve, 1/8" away from the edge.

You will use this same basic technique to add the elastic trim to the neckline, the main difference being, that you will need to stitch the trim into a round prior to attachment.

*I guess if you really wanted to, you could attach the trim to the neckline prior to stitching both shoulder seams.  You could sew one shoulder seam, measure the length of the neckline, find the center point on the neckline, and then distribute the elastic trim.  

Once your trim is attached, you can then stitch the side seams of your top, and add a skirt to the base if you wish.

The -Not So Little- Black Dress

It might shock you that I'm back with a project, but I am.  I recently attended my brother's wedding, and had to have something to wear.  I had a horrible time finding an appropriate maternity dress in the store, and I didn't have anything in my closet that seemed appropriate either.

The great thing about this dress is that I used only material that I had on hand.  I had a scrap piece of black interlock knit that was too small for a full sized top, and several yards of semi-sheer fabric that made up the bottom.  The skirt of the dress is lined with a teal piece of material that my mom has had in her stash for years.  

 The wedding was in South Carolina, and I was terrified that I was going to melt in a black dress, so I opted to give it cap sleeves.  I wanted to dress up the neckline, so I added some pin tuck details that you'll recognize from the sunburst top.  I also used some stretch elastic trim to finish off the sleeves and the neckline.  The elastic trim was a first for me, and I really liked working with it.  I'm quite pleased with how the dress turned out.

It's hard to tell in the photos, but under the belt that I'm wearing is a band of stretch lace.  I wanted to cover up the awkward seam of the skirt and the bodice.  You might recognize the belt from this post.

I'm quite pleased with the way that the dress turned out, and I'll probably have to wear it to church every Sunday until I deliver this baby.  I received so many comments the day that I wore this to the wedding, about how I must be due any day.  When these photos were taken I still had 11 weeks left, yep I'm round, and bound to get even rounder.

Thanks for reading.  Happy sewing.

The Partly Cloudy Infant Sun Dress

So you're probably assuming that I'm pregnant with a baby girl, seeing that all of the sewing projects I've done lately have been baby girl related. The truth is that we still don't know.  Hopefully by early next week we'll have some news.  I had this idea for a little dress recently, but I only had enough fabric for an infant sized dress, so that's what I made.  I guess that by next week I'll know if I'm going to be keeping it for our baby bump, or giving it to one of the many baby girls that has been born recently.

The dress is simple in design, and has three pintucks on the bodice, and two at the bottom of the dress.  I used two different widths of ric-rac to have add a little peek-a-boo of color.

The raw edges of the dress are finished off with a coordinating bias tape, which also serves as the shoulder ties.

I did my best to match up the pintucks and ric-rac on the side seams.  I was pretty pleased that they matched up as well as they did.

I left the back of the dress bare, with exception on the two pintucks and row of ric-rac at the bottom edge of the dress.

I still haven't tried the dress on an actual baby.  I'm guessing that it will probably fit a 9-12 pound baby, but I'm not positive on that.  Once I figure out the exact sizing I'll consider doing a tutorial with pattern for the dress.

On a related note, I'm hoping to have a tutorial and pattern available for the piped baby skirt later this week.  I have the photos taken, I just need to scan in and prepare the pattern.

Thanks for reading, and happy sewing!

Hip For The Holidays- I'm Biased and Bow Tied

Well you didn't think that I'd make it through the series without a project for myself did you?  It was really hard for me to decide what to make, because I have a long list of projects that are either bouncing around in my head, or borrowed from other talented bloggers.

Some day I'll learn to take photos prior to church, that way my outfit won't
be totally wrinkled from wrestling a toddler for three hours.

For this project I decided that I'd make my life a bit easier, and follow a tutorial for this very biased skirt from Katy at No Big Dill.  You know that I love Katy and all of her sewing goodness.  She is always coming up with original projects and tutorials.  When I saw her tutorial for the very biased skirt I knew that I wanted to try it, but it was a matter of gathering the material, and setting aside the time.

 I ended up finding all of my materials at Wal-Mart.  Our local wal-mart will occasionally have sale for five yards for five dollars.  The fabric selection is always a bit random, and isn't usually carried in the store.  I found three lightweight neutral fabrics for the skirt, and some lightweight knit for the shirt.

I'm quite pleased with how the outfit turned out.  I followed Katy's tutorial fairly closely.  The shirt was my own creation, and if you are interested you can find a tutorial for the pintucks below.

I ended up making pintucks at the base of the sleeves, and just above the "hem" of the shirt. I used two layers of knit fabric because the material was a bit sheer with just a single layer.

I was tempted to create an embellished neckline, but after finishing the shirt I could bring myself to embellish it.  I like that the pintucks repeat the rows of the bias cut fabric on the skirt.  I also like that it is pretty plain, that way it can be dressed up with a necklace, or in this case a sash.

I decided to add a sash using an extra strip of bias cut material.  I have a relatively shapeless figure, and the sash is just what I needed to break up my straight waist.

Now that the shirt is finished I really wish that I would have added a third pintuck at the hem of the shirt,  I think that it would have given it a bit more visual balance.

As you can see, I didn't hem the sleeves or the bottom of the shirt. The material curls up a bit, and I quite like how it looks when worn.

Here's a close up of the pintuck treatment on the sleeves, yep that's my marking pen that still hasn't disappeared.

Want some tips on making a pintucked top?  Click read more below.

Modified Pintuck Top

I mentioned after making the sunburst top that I had lots of ideas running through my head of how I could modify a simple pintuck.  This shirt is the realization of some of those thoughts.  The top didn't turn out exactly like I'd hoped (namely the shape of the bib), but I really liked playing with this technique.  

The shirt itself is a basic cap sleeve t-shirt (see tutorial here), I then added a panel of modified pintuck fabric, along with a ruffle border and a few simple buttons.  If I were to do it again I would bring in the bib so that it starts closer to the neckline.  I might also add a faux placket for the buttons. Enough of that though, I was intending on this post being more about the technique and less about the shirt itself. 

To create the puckered pintucks I made 1/8" pintucks about 1 inch apart. 

Then I stitched perpendicular to the pintucks in alternating directions. Alternating directions will tack down the pintuck one way, and press it up the other.  It is a super simple and fun way to modify a basic pintuck.  My rows were about 1/2" apart.  If you look closely (which you shouldn't, but now you will) my rows aren't exactly even.  I was lacking patience and consequently perfection wasn't achieved (but it rarely is).  I think that it would be fun to create the rows of pintucks closer together.  I think that this technique could be really sweet on a little girl's dress.  

Check out these great link party spots.

Pintuck Sunburst Top

The Sunburst Top

Notice the Subtle pintucks around the neckline?

I seem to be on a t-shirt kick lately.  It is a lot of fun to make clothes for myself.  My most recent creation is this basic pintuck shirt.  I have wanted to try pintucking for a while, but I wanted a basic project to start with.  I used the same cap sleeve pattern that I've been using the last little while.  I found this great tutorial from Burda Style on pintuck fabrics.  It really was such a simple technique.  I am excited to try out a couple of different ideas that I have running through my mind.  

The fabric that I used was a really lightweight aqua knit (another piece I snagged from my mom's collection), lined with some white knit that I purchased at Wal-mart on clearance. To do the pintuck technique I traced my pattern onto the fabric, marked where I wanted my pintucks to be, and stitched away.  After sewing my pintucks I went back and adjusted the pattern (retracing the original pattern to accommodate for the pintucks-I needed more fabric for shoulder seams).  Normally when pintucking you pintuck and then cut out your pattern from the prepared fabric.  In this case I wanted the shirt to be one piece, and I wanted the pintucks to form around the neckline.  If you try a similar project you will want to be sure that you layout your pattern with a bit of extra material on each side of your pattern.

I chose not to trim the neck and armholes with ribbing.  Because I was using two layers of fabric,  I simply stitched the neckline and armholes with wrong sides together, clipped the curves, and turned the shirt right-sides out.  I added topstitching around the openings, stitched the side seams, and I was done.  The lightweight knit had a nice curled edge so I left the hem unfinished.

It is a pretty basic top, but was the perfect project to try out pintucking.  I think that it is going to be a great layering piece come fall.  

I hope that it inspires you to try out a few new sewing techniques.  It also feels great to use up fabric that I've had stowed away.  Don't forget to sign up for Stashbusting September if you haven't already.

Check out where I'm link-partying today.     

Check out my tips and tricks for sewing with knits: Part 1, Part 2