Not Your Momma's Homemade Prom Dress

I know I haven't posted in a hot minute, but I wanted to showcase the prom dress I made for my beautiful stepdaughter. She bought a dress online and it didn't fit properly. It was way too much to fix so, she gave me 10 days to put a dress together. Yes. 10 days! We sketched up exactly what she wanted, visited the fabric store and got to work.

We used a satin for the skirt and belt, a nude lining and a beautiful black lace for the bodice. We did end up buying a pattern, but it was awful so I threw it away and can't remember what it was. By awful I mean like 10 sizes too big. I ended up using the pattern as a template for the skirt. I used my measurements to cut it down and it turned out great. 

For this gown, I cut four panels for each side (per the pattern) but cut them in to slenderize the look. Basically, the bottom of the two middle panels met into a slight "V" at the bottom. The bottom of the skirt is a circle skirt. ( Look at the Circle Skirt App to get a perfect one for the bottom of the dress.)

For the bodice of the dress, she wanted a cut-out in the back. So, I made a corset type lining so I could easily do a cut-out with only lace and not have to worry about getting both fabrics perfectly in line. Because I was working with lace, I serged around where all hems would be, then rolled that under twice. Made it soooo much easier!

We put an invisible zipper in, sewed an applique onto the belt and we were done! The biggest shocker, I was done early!

Circle Skirt App-By Hand London

As you know, circle skirts are all the rage. I even have a few tutorials that show you how to make some. If you've made a circle skirt then you know that the measurements don't always come out right. They're typically a little large which works great if you're making an elastic waist but not when you're putting in a zipper. 

I have found the most amazing app to get the exact measurements (like the radius) so if you're installing a zipper, your waist isn't too big. You can find it at By Hand London. The best thing about this is that you can choose what type of circle skirt you want to create (quarter, half or full) and choose the length. You put your measurement in and it tells you how much fabric you need, how large your radius is and a view of how to trace is out on your fabric.

While you're checking out this app, poke around their site. There's a lot of cool blog posts, patterns and sewalongs! 

Hope this helps you out! Don't forget to follow us on Pinterest at makeitlovediy

Big Girl Tutu Skirt

This Big Girl Tutu will bring out your inner Carrie Bradshaw. Once you put it on, you will feel oh so pretty. I've made tons of tutus for my little love bug but when I saw these all over Pinterest, I had to make one for myself. I think I'll probably have one in every color. Best part is they're simple, easy to make, inexpensive and freaking awesome. Here's how:

Materials:

Sewing machine or serger

About 10 yards of tulle

1-2 yards of lining fabric

1 1/2 - 2 inch elastic

Scissors

Paper for making pattern

To make this skirt we're making a circle skirt or "skater" skirt pattern. You can see how to do that here. Just don't cut out a waistband for it. Use newspaper or whatever you have to make a pattern because you will use it a lot. The waist will be a little large which is what we want, so no worries.

I know this pic is a little "Wicked Witch of the West" so it's just to give you an idea of how full it is!

Cut out your lining. I chose a black poly-blend that is light and airy. Perfect for these types of skirts. Then turn your skirt inside out and hem the bottom. I serged the bottom instead of hemming because I'm just that lazy. 

Next, you have to cut out all of your tulle. I did 5 layers on mine, you can do more or less. Make sure you use the circle skirt pattern. I tried a different way since tulle is such a pain to cut and it didn't work out and I had to redo it. So, make sure you use your pattern! I've also found the easiest way to cut poly and tulle is to lay it on carpet or a rug. It doesn't move around as much and makes it a heck of a lot easier.

Once you have everything cut, pin it all together at the waistline. One layer at at time. This takes the longest so do what I did and watch an episode of Chelsea. It doesn't seem to take as long when you're laughing at something. When everything is pinned, serge or do a tight zigzag stitch to hold it all together. 

Then get your elastic ready. Cut it to your waist measurement minus an inch. Put right sides together and zigzag stitch or serge the ends together. Now,this part starts to get hard and confusing. I tried looking up some YouTube videos to help, but can't find any that would make this easier...so, mark your elastic into quarters. Fold it in half and pin, then in half the other way and pin. Do the same with your skirt. Put the elastic inside out over the right side of your skirt and match up the pins. Pin the elastic then serge or do a medium zigzag stitch to attach it. To sew the elastic, make sure you pull it taught so it stretches out to the next pin and sews on right.

Try it on and go out tonight to show it off! Because let's be honest, this is THE skirt to show off.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Be sure to follow us on Pinterest at makeitlovediy so you don't miss anything!

 

 

Pinterest Tutorials: Yay or Nay?

This Holiday Season, I wanted to try some DIY tutorials that are all over Pinterest. Some of them worked, some of them didn't and some of them I did a different way (that was said wouldn't work). So, this tutorial is all about what will happen so you don't have to waste time!

It is so hard in our family to find something for everyone. They seem to have everything so my sister and I wanted to make some things for the family. This year I jazzed up plates to make serving plates, made wine glasses, coffee mugs, pictures on wood and tried to make some pendents and this is what the outcome was...

For the Picture Lover

Last year my sister and I tried to transfer a picture onto wood. It didn't come out. That tutorial said to use pictures printed from a photo lab. This year I tried the other tutorials that say to use an inkjet printer to print your picture out. I don't think we have an inkjet printer and I have no idea what the difference even is. I used a regular printer and regular paper to transfer pictures onto wood and it came out great! 

 

Materials used:

Wood

Printed picture from your printer

Sponge brush

Gel medium

Modge Podge

Find yourself a piece of wood that will fit your picture. I found my wooden plaques at Michael's and they range between $2.50 and $15. Use your sponge brush to apply the gel medium to the wood. You can find the gel medium at a Michael's or any place like it in the paint supplies. The gel medium transfers the ink to the wood so put on a generous amount but don't over do it. Then put your picture on the wood, ink side down. Make sure that you reverse your picture if it has any words on it so it will come out correctly. Press your picture out using another sponge brush or even a credit card to get all of the air pockets out and making sure every piece of the paper is pressed down to the wood. 

All of the tutorials I read said to leave the picture overnight to dry. I left one overnight and the other one I finished out after it was dry. The one that was not left overnight came out a lot better in my opinion. The ink didn't rub off as easily and was a lot easier to get all of the paper off.

Once the gel medium is dry, get a cup of water and a sponge brush. Paint on water all over the paper so it's saturated. This make is a lot easier to get the paint off. Gently scrub the paper away in a circular motion. Seriously, GENTLY! If you scrub too much it will take the ink off of the wood. Keep dipping your sponge into the water to keep it nice and sopping wet until it looks like you have gotten all of the paper off. 

Wipe all of the excess paper off and pat it dry. Let the wood dry to see if there is anymore paper you need to get off. I didn't do this with the first one, slapped on some Modge Podge then when it dried, I saw all the paper that was still stuck to the wood. Woopsies!

If there is still paper, put more water on it and gently scrub it off then pat it dry and spread a thin layer of Modge Podge all over it to seal the ink in. Once dry, hang it up and enjoy!

For the Hostess with the Most-ess

The next thing I tried is plates and mugs that are painted so you can put your own spin on it then you bake and it's ready to go. This came out great and it's easy to personalize for each person.

Materials:

Plates and/or mugs

Paint pen

Head over to your local dollar store and pick up some plates and mugs then get your paint pens at Michael's, Hobby Lobby or Wal-Mart. Clean them off so you don't have any dirt or dust and figure out what you want on them and go to town. Once you have what you want on your plates and mugs, let them dry and go over them again. Some colors may need another coat. Once all the coats are applied, put them in a preheated oven at 300 for 25-30 minutes and enjoy!

Some tutorials have said you can use Sharpies, but I think using paint pens helps to make a smoother look and stays on better. 

Using this technique I made my Grandma and In-laws serving plates and made some mugs for my Uncle and his future wife. Everyone loved them...I still need to make my sister some but I was going to put some glitter and Modge Podge on it and see how it came out. I'll let you know what happens.

For the "Wine-o"

This next one, I made for my Mom. We're both "Wine-Os" so I thought some new wine glasses to put on her bar would be perfect. I love this one so much that I thought about keeping them for myself. I never found actual tutorials for this, but only "tutorials" saying "use some paint on the glass." Not very helpful. Are you supposed to bake them like the other things or leave them be? Anyways, here's what I did:

 Materials:

Wine glasses

Paint

Paint pen

Modge Podge

Sponge brush

The glasses I used are from the Dollar Store, such a great deal! Then get your paint and paint pens from the craft store. I started off with painting the base, the stem and the underside of the base. You're going to need to put a few coats (like 4!) to make sure it's not translucent. Let the paint dry in between coats and once the last coat is dry, put on some Modge Podge. The Modge Podge made it look great. I always use a gloss and it brightened up the stems and base drastically. The Modge Podge also helps seal the paint.

The next step is to paint whatever you would like on your glass. I put little dots on it and spread them out going up. After my Mom opened her present, they were used that night and they look even better with a red wine in them!

I didn't try to put them in the oven to bake the paint in since you typically don't put them in the dishwasher, so doing it like this is is hand wash only.

Not so Great Pendant

The last thing I tried was thumbprint pendants. All the tutorials or shall I say pinterest pins say use salt dough, put your thumbprints in it to make a heart  and bake for 2 hours, then paint. This does not work. I wanted to make some thumbprint pendants to put on a chain of my daughter's thumbprints to give to her Gammy and Mimi. We went through all the hassle making this salt dough, trying to get my 2 year old to put her thumbprints in the shape of heart and baking them for absolutely nothing! First off, baking for 2 hours is crazy. It takes about 20 minutes. If you ever make a salt dough to make things out of, let it sit for a while and it won't be so sticky. If it's still sticky add some more salt. If you don't want to wait for it to set, add the same amount of salt as flour. 

I am going to try this again using an applesauce and cinnamon dough. My Mom use to have us make ornaments and different things out of it and from what I remember, it takes imprints a lot better. Now, to get the recipe from my Madre and I'll let you know what happens.

I hope this tutorial has helped! It always stinks when you find something on Pinterest that looks awesome then it doesn't work out and you're out hours and money working on it.

Stay crafty and have a Happy New Year!

Please share and follow the Make it, Love it DIY on Pinterest at makeitlovediy!

I will be working on my Step-daughter's Prom dress so posts will not be frequent if any until this thing is done. I'm constructing all the patterns for it and first doing a mock-up then buying all the expensive fabric to make it look fabulous! Keep your fingers crossed for me that there is nothing horrible that happens to it. I'm still debating on making a tutorial for that dress or not. It will just depend on how difficult it turns out to be.

Tori has requested an all black lace dress with nude lining, a high neckline, open scalloped back with a hi-lo skirt with small train and a huge mid-thigh length tulle skirt underneath...I think this dress would look awesome so hopefully she won't change her mind again!

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 :)

Hope you liked this post! Share with your friends and follow me on pinterest!

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!

Don't forget to follow us on pinterest and share with your friends!

 

 

Cinderella Tunic

I finally got the chance to make it to the fabric store up here and they were having an awesome sale. As we were going in, I was trying to explain to my little one that we won't be long and Mommy was trying to find some fabric to make some new clothes so she needed to be good while we were in the store. She got super excited and asked if she could have a Cinderella dress. I told her we would look at the fabric (it's usually $10/yard! eek!) but it ended up being on sale! So, she picked out her fabric and proceeded to tell every person we passed that she was getting a Cinderella dress and then would start singing a Cinderella song to them. She thinks she is the center of attention everywhere we go, and she ends up being just that. I told her I would start the dress the next day and she didn't forget that! As soon as she woke up, she took her jammies off and was tying to put the yard of fabric around her as a dress. So, I had to start the dress. She watched me the entire time and tried to help until she had to take a nap. Her nap didn't last long and Mommy still had to hem the dress. As soon as it was done, she stared at her self in the mirror for a while then was ready to show it to everyone. She's had it on the past 2 days...I think I'm going to have to make a few more. So if your little one is as crazy about "Erella" as my little one is, this a simple dress to make for them. Heck, you can make one for each day! 

Materials:

About a yard of fabric

Matching thread

A loose dress to use as a pattern

1/4" elastic and 3/8" elastic

To get started, turn the dress you're using inside out and fold it in half. Put it on the fold of your fabric, leaving a couple inches from the fold to where your dress starts. Trace around the dress, extending the neckline and bottom of skirt and leaving enough room for seam allowance around the rest of the dress and cut out 2 of these.

Once you have your pieces cut out, put right sides together and pin the shoulder seams and the side seams. Then serge or zigzag stitch your seams and press.

At this point I tried it on Aubree to make sure the armholes were large enough. That was a huge mistake! She thought her dress was done and would not take it off.

Now, get out your iron and ironing board and press the neckline over (to the wrong side of the fabric) with enough room to put 1/4" elastic and having room for stitching. You may need to notch some places to get the curve to fold over correctly. Then pin in place and stitch down, leaving at least an inch opening to get your elastic in. Then measure around the neckline of the dress you used for your pattern and cut your 1/4" elastic to that measurement plus 1 inch. Slip a safety pin on your elastic and feed it through your casing. Once it is all the way around, overlap your elastic by 1/2" and zigzag stitch together. I always go down, then reverse, then back down and tie off. Get all of your elastic back in the casing and stitch the opening closed.

Time to put the elastic waist in. Instead of making a casing; which I normally do, I cut the 3/8" elastic to my daughter's waist measurement plus 2". Overlap your elastic ends by 1/2" and zigzag stitch together the same way you did for the neckline elastic. Lay your dress out flat and mark a straight line across the waist on front and back (making sure they match up!). Now, slide your elastic band around the dress and pin on one side seam then pull the elastic and find the middle and pin that onto the other side seam. Do this again to pin equal sides of the elastic to the front middle and back middle. Once pinned down, you're going to zigzag stitch the elastic down. Sewing elastic down can be tricky, but all you have to do is pull both sides of your elastic while sewing it down. It will stretch out the elastic to sew down properly then will gather once it's stitched.

 
















Last steps are to hem the armholes and hem the bottom. Hemming the armholes can be tricky too, just notch where needed to get the fabric to lay down flat. I always serge my hemlines so I don't have to press 1/4" in then press another 1/4". If you serge it, all you need to do is serge then press over, pin and stitch. 

Now you have a fabulous Cinderella Tunic that your little one will NEVER want to take off! I made this for my daughter, but you can always use these steps to make one for you too. It doesn't have to be Cinderella fabric, but I won't judge it you want to be a pretty princess!

If you like this tutorial, feel free to share and follow me on pinterest to see all the tutorials I post at makeitlovediy 

Update on color block dress: I STILL CANNOT FIND WHAT BOX IT IS IN!!!!!! It is driving my crazy! This dang dress is almost done and I have no idea what box I put it in while packing. As soon as I find it, I will finish it and post the blog.