Friday, January 31, 2014

DIY Colonial "Molly Pitcher" Costume

My younger sister needed a costume for a school function~ so I volunteered to make it, of course!
She needed a costume for Mary Ludwig Hays, aka "Molly Pitcher" from the American Revolution.  Below is my inspiration board for the outfit. 

Making the Shrug/Bolero
I used Symphony Broadcloth Solid Quilt Fabric from JoAnn in Navy. It is inexpensive and looks nice.

Instead of using a pattern, I traced one of my sister's shirts onto the fabric including a 5/8" seam allowance on all sides. Make sure your fabric is folded in half so you end up with 2 shirt pieces.

Next, I cut out some sleeves by tracing the shirt sleeves on the fold. You will need to cut 2.

Here are my pieces! (2 sleeves, 2 shirt body pieces)

Take 1 of the shirt pieces and fold in half, matching up the neckline. Using a marking tool (or in my case, a pink Crayola Twistable), trace curves similar to those shown above. (One extending from the shoulder and diagonally down and one curve on the bottom edge. Connect these to form a half-oval and cut along the line.)

You should end up with 2 SEPARATE pieces to the front of the shirt. Align right sides together with the other shirt piece as shown above.

Pin the shoulder and side seams.

Now you end up with a vest! Onto the sleeves! You can't really see from the photo, but I sewed the 2 short ends of the sleeves (right sides together, of course.)

Attach the sleeves to the vest~ this took some patience ;) I sewed, okay glued, some black bias tape around the sleeve opening, but you could hem it as well.

For this next part, I referenced this tutorial from www.makeit-loveit.com 

From the remaining fabric, I cut 2.5" wide strips, which turned out to be almost a yard long each. I sewed 3 together, which was plenty for the shrug. Here, you can see my sis hemming the very long fabric strip on one long end, but I would recommend to hem both edges.

I used a basting stitch (a longer-than-normal straight stitch) to go all the way across the strip on ONE SIDE ONLY. DO NOT BACKSTITCH! Make sure you leave the threads long on either end so you can gently pull to create a ruffle! I then attached it to the shrug, which is explained nicely in Ashley's post!

Making the skirt
 I used Symphony Broadcloth Solid Quilt Fabric from JoAnn in Plumberry.

I folded my fabric in half, then in half again, lengthwise.

For the rest of the skirt process, I followed this tutorial on www.shrimpsaladcircus.com. Only thing is~ the skirt turned out very small in the waist! I would suggest adding another inch or so.

For the rest of the costume, my sister wore a white tank under the bolero, yellow-y-beige bonnet from Colonial Williamsburg, VA, some black flats, and carried an old plastic pitcher! 






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Monday, January 20, 2014

Baking Vanilla Cupcakes (From Scratch!)

I baked today! See what I made & how to make it here~



(Doubling the amount of sugar for that particular recipe wouldn't be a bad idea!)

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Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Velvet 3/4 Circle Skirt Tutorial

Today I'll show you how to sew a 3/4 circle skirt using Crushed Panne Velvet I bought from JoAnn.
 In order to make the pattern, check out these tutorials by Fickle Sense and The Snug Bug.

Also check out my FULL Circle Skirt Tutorial for different methods & tips.

Fold your fabric in half twice. (Also explained in the video.)

Since this is a 3/4 circle skirt, you will need to cut a quarter circle out of the skirt. Try to be as exact as possible!

This is different from my video instructions I believe: make a double fold hem around the skirt.

I sewed mine with a narrow zig-zag stitch. DO NOT pull or stretch the fabric as you sew!

Measure out a waistband 5" x waist measurement.

Fold it in half, right sides showing, and pin it to the waist opening of the skirt, also right side out. The 2 layers of the waistband should match up with the waist of the skirt.

Sew using either a straight or zig zag stitch.

Fold the skirt in half so the two raw sides of the skirt match up like this. Sew with a straight stitch all the way down the side.

And... voila!







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