Little Black Sheath Dress

Today, I will tell you how to make the most simple dress you can make. I don't even have any pics to post for the steps. It's that simple. We're making the perfect sheath dress. I love these dresses because you don't need any elastic or zippers (as long as you're using the right fabric) and like I said, it's simple to make. 

With a dress like this, you want to find a poly with a good bit of stretch to it. No lycra or spandex but good stretch! You want to make sure the stretch will be going across you horizontally when you're cutting it out. The other thing I used is a bodycon dress. Yes, a bodycon dress to use as the template. If you don't have a bodycon, find one of your most form fitting dresses to use...Let's get started!

Materials:

1-2 yards of poly (with some stretch) fabric

Matching thread

Dress to use as template

First, lay out your fabric then lay your dress (turned inside out) on top. You want to cut the front and back separately. Use your marking pen and mark around your dress but adding a little bit of wiggle room so your dress isn't as skin tight as the dress you're using. If you end up wearing this to work, you don't want to look like you're headed to the club afterwards. I ended up needing to add a total of 1" to make it a little looser. You can add more if you'd like (which I did at first). It's better to need to take it in then not having enough fabric for it to fit! 

Once both sides are marked out, cut it out and pin (with right sides together) your shoulder seams then your side seams. Serge or zigzag stitch your seams then press. 

Try it on and see if you need to take it in any more. It's easy to pin while you have it on. Just turn it inside out and pin to where you would like your seams to come in to. If needed, take it in some.

Once you're done with your seams, all you need to do is hem your neckline, sleeves and bottom of dress and you're ready to wear it!

I told you it was easy! You can find tons of things you already own to use as a template in order to make some new clothes. Just look at the seam lines of things and you'll find it to be really easy to piece together your own outfits...or you can just follow my blog and I'll show you how :)

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Elastic Waist Pleated Skirt

I've had this fabric for a few weeks now and finally decided what I wanted to make. I need some new work clothes and can't find too many things that I like in store, so I made this elastic high waist (because I loath installing zippers) pleated knee-ish length skirt. Of course, there's a few things I would change about it the next time I make one, but I'll fill you in on what they are when we get to that. This, like most of my tutorials is really simple. As long as you know how to sew, it will go by super fast.

Materilas:

1-2 yards of fabric

(I used a plain old cotton that was 50% off! You want something a little stiff to hold the shape but pick what you fancy)

1/2"-1" elastic

(you need enough to fit your waist)

I started with cutting my fabric on the fold to have 2 pieces, each 1 yard long and cutting a waistband from each piece. I did my waistband 2" wide, which will make it about an inch wide once sewn. (This is where I would have cut to make it 4" to have at least a 2" waistband). You want to make sure the skirt will stretch over the widest part of you (mine are my giant hips) comfortably. So,measure around your widest part (giving a little extra wiggle room) and divide by 2 and write that number down. Measure out your fabric, and subtract the number you wrote down from that. This is how much you have to make pleats. Take your pleats number and divide it by 2 (inches used per pleat). Now, take the length in inches of your fabric and divide it by the number you just came up with. This is how far your pleats are apart from center of pleat to center of pleat. Once you figure this number out, mark on the right-side of your fabric every x amount of inches that number was. Then go back and mark 1" on each side of that mark. Do this on both pieces of your skirt. Then press and pin your pleats in to the center line. If you don't know how to do these box pleats, check out this tutorial to see how. 

One you have your pleats done on each side of the skirt, lay it out and match your waistbands up to it. Cut your waistbands to size with the waist of your skirt. Then, put right sides together with your skirt and pin along the side seams, serge or zigzag stitch together and press. Do the same for your waistbands.

Once right sides are sewn together, turn your skirt right-side-out and waistband inside out. Pull your waistband down the waist of your skirt (I pulled it down about 1/4" or where I had stitched down my pleats), pin and zigzag stitch in place. Turn over and press your seam. Turn your skirt inside out and press your waist band down just above the stitch line you just did. Pin and stitch around, leaving at least an inch opening to slide your elastic in. 

Now, cut your elastic to your waist measurement minus 1 inch. Hook on a safety pin and shove it through your casing. Once you get all the way around your waist band, overlap your elastic by 1/2" and zigzag stitch together. Get your elastic ends back in your casing and stitch the casing closed.

Lastly, hem your skirt. Turn your skirt inside out and press up 1/4", then another 1/4", pin and stitch down.

And you're done! It's quick, easy and super Cute!

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