On Trend Friday–Tulle Skirts

This weekend we have my husband’s work holiday party.  When I was trying to come up with something to wear, I kept seeing these pictures of tulle skirts everywhere.  I thought it was a really easy and inexpensive skirt that would work great for a holiday party, so I jumped on board with the idea.

My first mistake was that I ordered the fabric online to include the amount of yardage before I fully read through any of the tutorials.  I had just assumed I would make a gathered waist and I would have plenty of yardage.  I had also envisioned doing a chiffon layer with lots of tulle underneath.  I got 3 yards of tulle and 3 yards of chiffon.  I’ll give you a hint…...it was not enough.

Once I got the fabric and was prepared to sew it together I finally looked at few tutorials like this one from Cotton & Curls.

Once I saw all the tutorials were for circle skirts, which helps keep the bulk down around your waist, I quickly noticed I did not have near enough fabric.  In fact once I did the math I realized I had to run to the store and get 12 more yards of tulle.  I also realized I was not going to be able to overlay the chiffon and instead it would go under the layers of tulle.

I was going to have to sew my tulle together, since the length of skirt I had chosen did not lend itself to the easier cutting version.  I thought I would try out transparent thread, so that you wouldn’t be able to see that the tulle was sewn together.  After an hour of fighting with the transparent thread and only accomplishing one seam, I decided the stubborn thread wasn’t worth it, and just used ivory to match the tulle.  If you get up really close you can see the thread, but most people will never notice it.

Except I haven’t even begun to tell you about the hardest part of making the tulle skirt.  Cutting 15 yards of tulle.  A huge nightmare.  I mean huge nightmare.  All I can say is if you take on this type of a skirt, be prepared to pin the tulle together and have a very luge cutting surface to lay it all out on.  Or maybe find out exactly the yardage you need for each skirt layer.  I had a total of 6 layers for my skirt, 4 tulle, 1 chiffon, and 1 lining.  In my instance I needed 4 yards for each layer.  I should have had the fabric store cut my tulle pieces into 4 yard increments.  Then I could have just cut each layer out of that.  Instead I was trying to stack up multiple layers of tulle that were all attached together and not laying flat.  Like I said, a huge nightmare.  (If anyone else did the math, yes you would see in the end I had some funky layers underneath that were not exactly cut out of 4 yards.  Again do the math and find out how much you need before you order/buy the fabric).

Also find out the exact length you want before you cut out the fabric.  Because my cutting was going so horrible, I left everything long so I would hopefully not mess anything up.  In the end, I kept cutting and cutting, sewing and sewing to get all my hems in the correct location after I had attached the skirt to the waistband.  And the whole while, upset with myself for not cutting it out correctly the first time.

So what did we learn?

1.  Find a tutorial you want to follow and get everything measured out for your body size and skirt length, then figure out how much fabric you will need to accomplish this.

2.  Find out how to correctly use transparent thread on your sewing machine, or just skip it and use a matching color – no one will notice.

3.  Get your fabric cut into sizes that correctly correspond to each skirt layer.  Cut each layer individually and to the correct length.

4.  Assemble and sew your skirt according to your tutorial of choice.

5.  Go out and celebrate in your new party ready skirt!

Speaking of number 5 – what to pair with my new skirt with is my currently dilemma.  I ended up having quite a few choices to pull from.

Somebody please help me decide!  I know the middle two choices in each row are out….but I really can’t decide between the rest.

And realize that in these shoes, I will also be sitting a lot of the night.  I have a huge love/hate relationship with high heels!

Stripe Foldover Clutch Tutorial

There are other tutorials out there for a foldover clutch.  I liked the idea of adding a stripe down the center and adding some fun leather and stitching details.

If you would like to sew up one yourself, keep reading.

Materials I used:

Main body was a neutral colored 7oz. Duck Canvas

Stripe was a non-fray synthetic suede

Lining was a cotton scrap

Leather accents were from a used purse, but could also use any scrap leather or leather from craft store.

Craft weight interfacing

10” zipper in coordinating color, I used mine from a old purse.

Coordinating thread, I used a extra strong thread strength, this made the thread thicker which makes it show up better in detailing.

First you need to cut out all your pieces.  I find a rotary mat and cutter work great for square/rectangular shapes.

In your main color fabric cut:

(4) 4 1/4” x 14” strips

In your coordinating suede fabric cut:

(2) 2 1/2” x 14” strips

In your lining fabric cut:

(2) 10” x 14” strips

In your leather fabric cut:

(1) 8”x4” strip, (1) 1 1/2” x 11” strip

In your craft weight interfacing cut:

(2) 8” x 10” strips

Sew your main body strips to your suede strip with right sides together using 1/4” seams.  You are making two panels one for the front and one for the back, each one is identical.

Iron your front and back panels with the seams toward the main body color, as seen above.

Make sure you test your fabrics on an iron first before you iron the finished product, as you can see above, the suede I bought did not take to the iron and shrank up. 

Top stitch 1/8” from center stripe, on each side of strip, on both front and back panels.

Now we are going to create the hand strap.

Take your strip of leather and fold it in half, right side together, sew along the long length.  Turn leather right side out, put seam to middle back of tube.  I left my small edges raw, since the fabric did not fray and I knew I would be sewing those edges onto the front panel.

Edge stitch on each side of the leather strap. (Unlike my picture above shows, do this step first before you sew the strap onto the bag).

Sew leather strap onto front panel, creating a rectangular pattern on each end.  Make sure you have enough room to comfortable fit your whole hand through the strap.  Center the strap and bring it down approximately 5” from the edge.

After I sew on the strap I tested it with my hand and realized I needed to make the spacing smaller, so I sewed on a couple more lines of stitching on each end.

Next we are going to sew on the zipper.  Pin the right side of the zipper onto the right side of the front panel (make sure you line up the edge of the panel closest to the leather strap you just installed on the front). 

Place the right side of the lining onto the wrong side of the zipper, but right side of the front panel, pin through all three layers and baste stitch as close to the zipper as possible.

Pull the fabric away from zipper that you just sewed to expose the opposite side of the zipper and repeat these same steps on the other side of the zipper to create the back panel.

Iron on your fusible interfacing to the exterior front and back panel on the bottom edge (opposite the zipper).

Take your 1 1/2” x 11” leather strip and cut out the center 1/2” of it so that the zipper would peek through (as seen below).

Sew your leather strip as close as possible to the zipper on both sides, you will be sewing through both the exterior panels and the lining on each side.  Then sew again on the out edge of the leather strip, do not sew down the short sides as this should be overhanging the fabric.

Next step you can do either of two ways.

1.  Make sure to have the zipper open and sew the front panel to the back panel with right sides together, do not sew the lining together in this step.  Sew along both sides and bottom, making sure to not sew in the top leather strip over the zipper that overhangs the sides.  Sew the lining together with wrong sides together and trim seems with a set of pinking shears or zigzag the stitches to keep the cotton from fraying.

or

2.  Make sure to have the zipper open and sew the front panel to the back panel having the lining attached, so the sewing sandwich should be wrong side of lining to wrong side of back panel, right side of back panel to right side of front panel, wrong side of front panel to wrong side of lining.  Sew all four layers of fabric together on the sides and bottom.  When near the top make sure to not sew in the top leather strip that overhangs.

In each of these scenarios you will have an exposed stitching in the lining, but as shown below the bag is so deep you will not be able to see it.

Turn the bag right side out through the zipper.  Sew down the small sides of the top leather strip, making sure you tuck any exposed edges of front or back panel, so that they will not be seen once you sew the sides together of the leather.

Now go on and enjoy your new bag that you accomplished yourself!

Semi Harem Long Shorts w/Tutorial

I wanted to make my son a pair of harem pants.  It’s almost summer, so I wanted to try and turn them into shorts.  As regular shorts, it wouldn’t look right, and to be honest I wanted to cover his knees, since the poor kid keeps falling and hurting them so often.  So Semi Harem Long Shorts it is with his coordinating striped sleeveless shirt.

First I used a pair of skinny pajama pants that fit him well as the base to my pattern.

These pants happen to be made of two pieces sewn in the middle (meaning no side seam).  So I folded the fabric making sure the stretch went in the horizontal direction, and laid my pants pattern on top of the fabric.  I folded the pants up to where I thought I would want the length to be, keeping it a little longer knowing I could trim it later.  At first I kept a couple inches at top for a waist band.  I also knew I wanted them to have the drop crotch look, so I kept a little extra room in the crotch seam.

After I cut out both sides, I had decided I was going to add a different colored waist band, so I cut the legs at the top of the waist at a slight diagonal so that the back of the pants would be higher than the front of the pants.

I don’t have pictures of the next two steps in action, but I laid the two legs with right sides of fabric together and sewed each edge together to make the front and back seams. 

Then I sewed the inner seam of the legs.

The next step can be done in multiple ways.  You can leave the waist band longer and fold over the original color of fabric to created a casing and then add an elastic waistband.  You can add a different colored piece of fabric and fold that over to create a casing and then add an elastic waistband. 

Or my method was using a piece of black fabric that wasn’t as stretchy, it was more of an exercise type fabric (old yoga pants to be exact).  I knew it would most likely stay up on his waist without adding elastic.  I cut the fabric making it 2 inches wide and as long as the pant waist needed.  I sewed the band together making a loop.  I then tried the loop on my son, seeing it was still a little loose, I sewed it again making the loop smaller.

Then I placed right sides together and sewed the waistband to the pants.  My particular band was already hemmed, so I could use it as is.  If it wasn’t hemmed, I would have cut double the width similar to the next step for banding the bottom of the shorts.

Before I banded the bottom of the shorts, I did try them on my son to make sure they landed where I wanted them too.  I did have to cut off a couple inches on the bottom of the shorts.  Basically I liked where the shorts landed, but I knew I was going to add a two inch banding, so I cut off two inches.

For banding the bottom of the shorts I cut pieces that were 4 inches in width and the length needed to match the bottom of the shorts.

I then sewed the legs bands with the right side of the fabric together to make a circle.

Then fold your circle in half, and sew the unfinished edge to the bottom of the short leg, making sure you have the right sides together.

At this point your shorts are done.  You could just as easily make these pants, you would just make them longer!

My son loves them as they seem to be super comfortable for him.  I guess they have plenty of room for his diaper!

If you wanted to embellish the shorts (add back pockets, add fabric lettering, fabric numbering, etc), I would do that prior to sewing any of the leg seams, as with a toddler size, there isn’t much room to sew anything once they are put together.  I have plans to stencil some numbers on the leg with fabric paint, which can be done afterwards.

Please leave me a comment….if there is enough interest I will draft up a pattern.