The "Beach Hair" Spray

It's almost time for summer and "beach hair" is a must! I've always loved the way my hair curls after spending the day at the beach, but then you have to go wash it out asap! (Galveston isn't the cleanest water.) A few years ago, I started making some "beach curl" spray. I used to buy it, but when I realized all you need is an empty spray bottle, sea salt, conditioner and water; I started making it! It's so insanely inexpensive and gives you the perfect Beach look!

I use a 6oz spray bottle. Add about an ounce of conditioner, 2tbs of sea salt and fill your bottle up with warm water. Shake it up and spray all over your wet locks. You can let your hair air dry, or speed up the process and use a diffuser attachment (the one that looks like it has crazy spikes) on your blow dryer. Using the blow dryer, I've found gives a lot more volume to the top, which I LOVE! The bigger, the better!

I love using this spray because it gives my hair so much texture and volume! Hope you enjoy your new beach spray and get to rock some voluminous curls even when you're not at the beach. 

Your Favorite Romper

This week's tutorial: a Romper! Rompers are one of my favorite pieces of clothing. They are so comfortable and a perfect piece for summer! I wanted to make myself a romper because every one I find that I like is way too short or just doesn't fit right.

For my birthday, my awesome Grandma bought me a dress form and then wanted me to pick out some fabric. My Grandma loves batiks fabric and we saw this one at Hancock's. I'm usually not a huge fan of them, but they have some awesome tribal prints and tie-dye ones now and they're 40% OFF this month! Batiks are 100% cotton and pre-washed. If you're using a fabric like this, you need to have a low neckline so you can get into your romper without tearing it. If you want a higher neckline, try using a knit or cotton t-shirt that has some stretch to it or find a poly blend with spandex in it. 

Materials:

1 1/2- 2 yards of fabric

1/2" elastic- enough for your waist

Double fold biased tape

To make a romper, you want it loose. I did mine about 2x my measurements. The least I would do is 1 1/2x your measurements. To make your pattern, use an old tank top that you like. Make sure that the top you choose for your pattern has a low enough neckline that it will be able to slip on easily. Turn it inside out and trace the armholes and neckline then angle it out to the width that you need. Your top needs to be long enough to hit your waistline (or where you want your elastic) plus seam allowance. To make the shorts pattern, use a loose pair of shorts to trace out. Turn them inside out and fold them in half, tracing around them leaving room for seam allowance. Extend the bottom of your shorts down to the length you want plus seam allowance. Then extend the top of your shorts up high enough to reach your waistline plus seam allowance and at least another 1" for your elastic casing. Extend the waistline of your shorts out to 1/2 the measurement of your bodice pattern. Make sure you have enough room from your crotch to the top of your shorts to fit comfortably. If it's too short, you'll have a perma-wedge or even worse, camel toe!

Cut out your bodice front and back and your shorts. To cut out your shorts, have your fabric folded in half and cut the pattern out twice. If you want to add pockets, cut them out too. I cut out (4) 5x7 rectangles for the pockets.

Start with your bodice and put right-sides together and zig-zag stitch or serge your seams and press. 

To sew your shorts, start with the pockets. With each quarter of your shorts, mark where you want your pockets to start on the right-side of your fabric. Keep in mind the extra inch and seam allowance we added to the top of your shorts. I measured down 6" and marked to start the pockets. Pin the right-side of each piece of pocket to the right-side of your shorts. Zig-zag stitch and press your seams.

Now to sew your shorts together. Put right-sides together (front and back) of each side of your shorts. Lining up the pockets and side seams. Pin starting at the top of your shorts, down around your pockets and down the rest of your seam. Then pin the seam under the crotch of your shorts. Zig-zag stitch or serge and press your seams.

Now, this part is a little confusing...once you've sewn up each "leg" of your shorts, turn one right-side out and put it inside the other leg so right-sides are together. Line up your crotch and pin together. Zig-zag stitch or serge and press your seams.

Now that your bodice and shorts are sewn, we need to sew them together. With your shorts turned right-side-out and your bodice turned inside out, pull your bodice over your shorts so the waistlines are together. Pin your bodice about 1" below the waistline of your shorts and zig-zag stitch together. Once they're stitched together, fold the casing down to your shorts. Pin in place and zig-zag stitch down making sure to leave enough room in your casing to push your elastic through. 

 (I forgot to take a pic of this, so here's one from the Maxi Dress from last week of how to create your casing.)

Now to put in your elastic. Measure your elastic out to the measurement of your waist minus 1". Hook a safety pin through one end and feed it through your casing. Once all the way around, overlap your elastic by at least 1/2" and zig-zag stitch together. Then finish closing your casing.

Now keep your Romper inside out and hem your shorts. Fold over 1/4" and press and another 1/4" and press, pin and stitch closed.

Last step is to finish the bodice. Like I've said before, I hate hemming necklines and armholes. That's what we have the double fold biased tape for. I pinned the biased tape to the raw edges of my neckline (I started in the middle of my "v" neckline) and when it got to where the straps should be, I measured out how long I needed my straps and continued to the back middle. Then repeated for the other side of my neckline and the same for the armholes.

Now you've finished your romper! Hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Sometime in the future, I want to make a structured romper, but I've never done boning before so I'll probably have a few too many mistakes before I can perfect it. Fingers crossed it will work out!

I also wanted to talk about sergers. I've had a few questions about them, so I thought I would explain exactly what they are. A serger has 4 different threads in it that basically ties up your seams. Look on the inside of your shirt. The seams that you see are what a serger creates. Sergers also have little knives on them so they can cutoff any excess fabric while sewing your seam up. Sergers make sewing garments so much faster and looks a lot cleaner. You won't have any raw or fraying edges. Another plus about a serger is that you can change the hem. On my maxi dress, instead of hemming the bottom, I used a rolled hem on the serger. A rolled hem is smaller so that you can hem the bottoms of some garments without having to fold, press, fold, press and pin.

 I love my serger! Again, I have an awesome Grandma and she bought me my serger for my birthday last year. I was just expecting a peddle foot for an old serger and she surprised me with a Janome Harmony 9102d! Hancock's tends to put Janome sergers on sale fairly often and you can find something in your budget. The only down side to a serger is that if you make a mistake, you're screwed! If you have the knife up, it will cut any excess fabric off, which sometimes you might need back. If you have the knife pulled down so you're not using it, and you make a mistake, you still have to seam rip 4 threads! It takes forever! I was making a hi-lo dress one night and was so excited that I was almost done. Just needed to sew the skirt to the bodice...I sewed it on backwards and had to rip the serged seam out to turn the skirt the correct way.

Anyways, if you want to start sewing more often, I would highly suggest getting a serger. Even though it takes 4 threads to run it, the maxi-lock thread is only $3/each with something like 3,000 yards on it. You'll use it forever! And it will make sewing garments so much nicer. 

Y'all have a great week! I don't have in mind what's going to be posted next week...there are too many things I want to make and not enough time. It usually comes down to what fabric is on sale.

Maxi Dress

Time to make a Maxi Dress! Once you see how easy these dresses are to make, you won't want to buy one again. I like maxi dresses because of their versatility. You can dress them down and be casual or dress them up. Good for any occasion! 

I wanted a super flowy maxi dress and found a great polyester fabric at Hancock's. Even better it was only $4.95 and I used a 40% off coupon! Since polyesters are synthetic, they don't breath much. You can find a cotton or knit that's a bit more breathable but with how flowy this dress is, it won't be too horrible in the summer heat.

Materials:

2-3 yards of fabric- depending how tall your are

1/2" elastic- enough for your waist

Flexi-Lace Hem Tape (optional)-used this for my straps

To start cutting out your pattern, you need to start with the skirt. If you have a maxi dress or skirt, measure the bottom to see how wide you need the skirt. You want to make sure it won't be too constricting. The first Maxi that I made, wasn't wide enough for the bottom and you can't walk great in it! I cut both panels for my skirt 27 1/2" wide. Measure from where you want your skirt to start down to the floor and add 2". Cut out your skirt. It should be 2 long rectangles.

To make the bodice, I made a pattern out of an old loose tank top. You need something that has straps to make the pattern. Turn your tank inside-out and trace your shirt leaving room for seam allowance. (As you can see, I usually make my patterns out of newspaper or tissue paper.) Measure out how long you want your bodice and add room for seam allowance. The bottom of your bodice needs to be as wide as your skirt so it will sew together properly. Since my original pattern wasn't as wide as my skirt, I had to expand it out to make it 27 1/2". I didn't want to expand the underarm because I wanted it to fit normally and be flowy towards the bottom of the bodice. There's a pic below to show you how I expanded it. I don't like hemming my bodice, so I always cut a lining out too. So, you'll have 4 pieces for your bodice.

 

 

 To sew your bodice, first start with the front of your dress and the lining. Pin right sides together and zig-zag stitch the sides together, the armholes and the neckline. Keeping the opening between armholes and neckline for your straps. Do the same with your back bodice and lining. Notch around your armholes and neckline, turn inside out and press.

Now that your lining is sewn in, put your dress bodice with right sides together, pin along the side seam and zig-zag stitch or serge and press your seams.

For my straps, I used a Flexi-Lace Hem Tape that I found at the fabric store. You can use whatever you would like. (I just really hate making biased tape to use as straps. It takes FOREVER!) Measure and cut how long you want your straps and add room for seam allowance. Hook a safety pin to the top of your strap and push it down, through one of your strap openings on the front bodice (between your armhole and neckline). Turn it inside out so you can see your strap coming through the inside. Pin your strap in place like this...

 Pin your strap the same way on the other opening of your front bodice and serge or zig-zag stitch closed. Turn right side out again. With safety pin attached to the other end of one of the straps, push down through your strap opening. Make sure your strap isn't twisted! Turn your back bodice inside out again so you can properly pin in place. Do this for the other strap. Pin and zig-zag stitch or serge closed.  Turn right side out and press your bodice.

Now to the skirt...With right sides together, pin, zig-zag stitch or serge your side seams and press. 

To attach your bodice to your skirt, turn your skirt right-side-out and your bodice inside-out. Fit your bodice over your skirt, so both waist lines are together. Since we're going to put elastic in, we have to make a casing for it. You added 2" to your skirt length for seam allowance and for the casing. Pull your bodice down your skirt enough that there's about and inch of your skirt waistline sticking out from your bodice. Once you sew your bodice to your skirt, we'll use the extra 1" to make the casing. Match up your side seams, pin and zig-zag stitch your seam. 

To make the casing, press your 1" of your skirt up to your bodice. Pin all around, matching up side seams and zig-zag stitch around, leaving an opening at the end large enough to push your elastic through.

Your elastic needs to be your waist measurement minus 1". Put a safety pin through one end of your elastic and push it through your casing. Once you get it all the way around, overlap your elastic by 1" and zig-zag stitch closed. Stitch your casing closed.

For the last step, all you need to do is hem the bottom of your dress and you're done!

I also made a shorter dress to show you...

Materials needed:

1-2 yards of fabric
1/2" elastic- enough for your waist
Biased Tape (optional)


This dress is made basically the same way, with a few changes. I made this blue one out of a 100% cotton t-shirt material. (Only $2.50/yrd on sale!)It's super stretchy and very cool. Since it's a thicker fabric than the polyester, I didn't make a lining for it....but I did add pockets! Every dress should really have pockets! I love 'em!

To start this dress, I cut out the front and back bodice. I used a different bodice top pattern for this one but you still have to angel it out for how wide you need it. This dress is 2x the size of your measurement or wherever you want the elastic to fit. I didn't cut lining out for this dress since the fabric is so thick. Put right sides together and pin your side seams and shoulder seams. Sew or serge and press your seams.

Cut your skirt the same way for the maxi, but make it as short as you want it. Remember, it needs to be the same width as the bottom of your bodice and add room for seam allowance, enough room to make your elastic casing (at least 1") and your hem. Cut it into front and back pieces, so you'll have 2 pieces for your skirt.

 To make the pockets, I cut out (4) 5x7 rectangles of fabric. I wanted my pockets to start about 5" down, but have to add another 1" to account for the casing. So, mark 6" down on either side of each of your skirt pieces. Pin your 5" side of one piece of pocket to the right side of your skirt starting at the mark you made. Repeat pinning the pockets onto the right sides of your skirt. Once pinned, zig-zag stitch and press.

Once your pieces of pockets are sewn down, put your skirt pieces with right sides together, lining up your pockets and side seams. Pin, zig-zag stitch or serge down your skirt, around your pocket and back down the rest of your skirt and press your seams.

Put your bodice and skirt together, just like for the maxi. Turn your skirt right side out and turn your bodice inside out. Place your bodice over your skirt, lining your skirt up 1" below the top of your skirt. Pin and zig-zag stitch together. Press your seam and fold your casing down over your skirt. Pin and zig-zag stitch the casing, leaving an opening to thread your elastic through. 

Use a safety pin to hook onto one end of your elastic and feed it through your casing. Your elastic should be the measurement of your waist minus 1". Once your elastic is pushed through, overlap your ends by 1/2" and zig-zag stitch together. Sew your casing closed.

Hem the bottom of your skirt. And for this dress, I used double fold biased tape to put around the armholes and neckline (since I really hate hemming round necklines and armholes). It makes it soooooo much easier! Of course, you don't have to buy it, you can always make it but it takes way too much time for me. Pin the double fold biased tape around your neckline and armholes and top stitch it down. If you haven't used biased tape, the double fold opens up and you can put your neckline and armholes in the middle so if folds over on the front and the inside of your dress.

Now you have two great dresses for Spring and Summer! Hope you enjoyed the tutorial! Next week, I'll hopefully be putting up a tutorial for a romper. Go figure, I LOVE rompers! Every romper I find just doesn't fit right so I'll show you how I make them!

Have a great week!

Spring Time Pleated Mini Dress

I LOVE Spring time! It's finally here and some new Spring dresses need to be added into the wardrobe. I found an amazing dress I wanted, but really didn't want to pay $70+ for it, so I made it for only $15 and a little bit of time. Of course, with a few alterations. This is the perfect dress for Spring and Summer, fun and flirty! I found this awesome fabric at Hancock's (on sale of course) and fell in love! Florals are perfect for this time of year and very on trend.

What you need:

2 yards of fabric

(Enough for your dress and lining for your bodice)

12"-16" zipper

I really wanted to find a fabric with a little spandex in it, but couldn't find anything that I liked. This fabric is just 100% cotton. No stretch what so ever! Since I couldn't find a poly blend, I wanted to add some detail into the dress. I like princess seams, but haven't ever tried them out. So....I broke down and bought a dress pattern. I used Butterick pattern 5554. It's a dress pattern, but I chopped the pattern off to the length I wanted for a bodice. And go figure, I had to alter the pattern to make it fit right. Even though the measurements say it's supposed to fit, it never does!

Let's get started! Cut your pattern out and measure the length you want for your bodice and cut the rest of the pattern off. Make sure you leave enough room for seam allowance at the bottom of your bodice! You can always cut more fabric off, but can't add it back. Cut out your fabric using your patterns. I waited to cut out the lining, we'll save that for later. Cut your waist band out in front and back measurements using your waist measurement and adding room for seam allowance. I cut the waist band on a fold and made it 2" deep. Measure how long you want the length of your skit plus room for seam allowance. Since the skirt is pleated, we'll add a few inches to your waist measurement before we cut the skirt. In the front and back center of the skirt I wanted a box pleat, then 2 pleats on either side of it. We're accounting 2" per pleat. A box pleat is basically 2 pleats turned into each other. For your skirt, we're going to cut it out front and back. So take your waist measurement for the front, then back and add 12" plus room for seam allowance to each.

First, we're going to focus on the bodice. Sew your bodice front and back following the pattern instructions but stop before you sew the front and back together. Princess seams are a bit tricky, but keep trying. I had to take a break trying to figure it out.


  Once you've sewn both sides of the bodice, use each side as the pattern to cut out your lining. (The back should still be in 2 separate pieces that make the whole.) 

Now that you have your lining cut out, with right sides together  pin and zig-zag stitch the front and back of the lining and the front and back of your dress fabric  at the shoulder. Press your seams then match up your dress bodice and lining bodice with right sides together. Pin and zig-zag stitch around the armholes and up one side of the back, around the neckline and down the other back piece.  

To make the triangle cut-out in the back, match your back bodice pieces together. Measure out and mark where you want your triangle. I made sure my triangle started far enough down to cover my bra strap and went down to the bottom of my bodice. Cut out, pin along where you cut your back and zig-zag stitch closed. Turn bodice right side out by pulling the back of the bodice through the shoulders towards the front and press. 

Once your bodice is pressed, we'll close the back of the bodice. In the pattern, they put a zipper down the back of the dress but we're going to put a zipper down the side instead. Turn your back bodice with right sides together and match up your neckline down to the top of your triangle. Pin and serge or zig-zag stitch and press your seam. 

Get both of your waistbands (front and back) and with right sides together, pin waistbands onto your bodice. Make sure the folded edge of your waistbands will be along your bodice. That way it will create a clean edge if you did your triangle cut out like mine. You'll have the gap along your back waistband where your triangle is cut-out. Stitch/serge the waistband to your bodice and press your seams.

Now to the skirt! If you haven't done pleats before, no worries. It's not as hard as it seems but just in case I'm not able to explain it well, there's a picture below. With both sections of your skirt, you'll mark the top center. Mark 2" on either side of your center mark. Measure out the remainder of your fabric on each side and figure out how far apart your (2) 2" pleats need to be making sure you're leaving plenty of room on either side for seam allowance. 

I have a picture below that I'll refer to so I can explain a bit better of how to make the pleats. Each red line that I have marked below, you can fold down that line a few inches and press to make a crease. This will make it easier to match up your marks. One at a time, match each crease up with the corresponding mark going towards the center of your skirt and pin. Once all pleats are pinned, tack down the pleats at the top with a stitch.

 

With right sides together, pin your skirt panels to your waistband. Make sure your box pleat is centered in the front and back and your stitch that is tacking down the pleats won't be shown when you press your seam. Serge or zig-zag stitch your skirt to the waistband and press. 

Turn your dress inside out, so right sides are together and match up your side seams from the underarm all the way down the skirt. Pin and serge or zig-zag stitch. Press your seam. For the right side seam, install your zipper according to manufacturer's instructions. Once your zipper is installed, pin down the rest of the length of your skirt and serge or zig-zag stitch closed. Press your seam. 

Last step! All there is to do now is hem the bottom of your skirt. Have your dress turned inside out and press your skirt bottom up 1/4" then another 1/4", pin and stitch. 

Now you have your super cute Spring dress! I have a feeling I'll be making more of these! Hope this tutorial was useful to you and you're able to understand it! Explaining it is a lot harder than doing it.

 

Ruffled Duvet Cover

My step daughter was coming to visit and has been wanting me to redecorate her room, so I finally caved. She found a ruffled duvet online for a couple hundred dollars that she really wanted. I saw a ruffled blanket on Pintrest that was made out of a sheet and thought I would use that idea to make a duvet instead of spending a few hundred on it. This is a very easy tutorial, but is very time consuming. I promise you it's worth the work!

All you need:

Sewing Machine/Serger (of course)

2 Flat Sheets that fit your bed

1 Flat Sheet of a larger size

I got my sheets at Ikea. They were only $10 each! Pick out any color you want your duvet in. I ended up getting a cream color, because I wanted to dye the sheets with an ombre effect (white isn't the best to dye). If you want to learn how to ombre dye, check out ritdye.com. They have some great tutorials for different dye effects.

First, I spread the larger sheet out and marked lines down every 6 inches from top to bottom. Cut all your strips out. Because I was on a time crunch, I serged each side of the strips with a rolled hem instead of hemming them. Serging each side gave the duvet more of a "chabby chic" look. If you don't have a serger, or would prefer a cleaner and less "chabby chic" look, hem each long side of your strips. 

Lay out one of your other sheets and mark from top to bottom where you want each strip to be. I marked 4 inches between where I wanted each strip to make sure there was enough ruffle to cover the stitch of the ruffle underneath it. 

Once you have all of your strips serged or hemmed, you're going to put in a gathering stitch at the top of each strip. To make a gathering stitch, set your sewing machine to the largest stitch length and don't tie off at either end. Leave plenty of thread on each side (start and stop of the stitch) to gather your fabric. When you have your gathering stitch in, grab the tail of the top thread. It can be at either end and pull the thread. You'll see your fabric start to gather. You can push the gather down the length of the fabric. You want to gather enough that your strips will fit across the sheet you've marked. You can push your gather up and down the length of the fabric to spread it out, or push it through to the end to get rid of gathers. Once it's the right length to fit your sheet, spread your gathers out to make sure it looks uniform across your strip.

When stitching your strips to the sheet, start from the bottom and work your way up. Pin and stitch one gathered strip at a time to your sheet until you reach the top. 

Now to sew the back of your duvet on! With right sides together, pin in place your ruffled sheet with your last sheet. Paying careful attention that the ends of your ruffles are lined up along the edges of your sheets. Pin and stitch/serge on the top and sides, leaving the bottom open. 

For the bottom of your duvet, choose how you would like to close it. You can put a long zipper in, buttons or ties. I chose to  use scrap fabric to make ties at the bottom. I cut strips about 6 inches long and attached them every 4 inches along the front and back of the duvet. I figured with the "chabby chic" way the duvet cover was going, it would add a sweet touch.

Now shove your comforter into your duvet and enjoy! 

I really enjoyed making this for Tori, she loved the way it turned out! Now I get to make another one for her room at home!