Sew-Along #13 - Stella Dress - Lesson #4

The Stella Dress View B by Izzy & Ivy Designs

Welcome to the Stella Dress sew-along.  If you have any questions, suggestions, or tips to share; please make sure to post them on our Facebook group.

Hopefully you have already read the Stella Dress instructions all the way through. It's probably a good idea to read through today's lesson once too before you begin.

*All seams for the Stella are ½" unless otherwise stated.

I also want to remind everyone that if you would like to see any of the images posted in this blog larger, just click on them. Let's begin now.


Day 4 - Finishing Your Dress.

Hello! Welcome to the final day of the sew along.  We are so close now; we just have a few items to finish up and then you will have your dress all complete and ready for some lucky little lady.  So let's finish it up!

The first item we need to tackle is attaching the hem band to the skirt. The first thing we will want to do is to place the band pieces right sides together and stitch the short ends together.  

***Note: If you are using a directional fabric, make sure your bands are facing the same direction before sewing them together.  

Once they are stitched together, press the seams open. 

Then you will fold the band in half, lengthwise and press it flat.

Once the band is pressed flat, match the raw edge of the band to the raw edge of the shirt and sew along the edges.  

Finish the raw edges and press the seam towards the skirt, then topstitch 1/4" and 1/8" above the hem band.  

Once the hem band is complete, we need to attach the skirt to the bodice.  I like to finish the bottom edge of the bodice and the top edge of the skirt before I attach them together, that way I am not serging through several layers of fabric.  You can always wait until the end if that is what you are more comfortable with as well.  

Once the raw edges are finished (if you are doing them now), we need to gather the skirt.  To do this, I used the string included in my kit to complete my gathers.  

Placing the string along the edge of the fabric, I used a wide and long zig-zag stitch to sew over the string.  Be careful not to sew ON the string though!

This is what the edge will look like once the string is stitched along the edge.  

Then, pulling the string and pushing the fabric in the opposite direction, gather the skirt along the string. 

Once the skirt is mostly gathered and inside out, I put the bodice inside of it. Adjusting the gathers and matching right sides together, I pinned along the edges and sewed the bodice and skirt together.  If you have not already finished your raw edges, you will need to do so now.  

The final step to the dress is to make the sash.  I didn't take pictures when I did my first one (oops!) so I made another one for my second daughters dress and took pictures of it (that's why it's a different colorway than the rest of my dress).  

I made one change from the pattern to my sash; you can follow the pattern or do it this way.  I do not like a center seam in the front of my dress, so I cut one of my sash pieces in half and attached it at each end of the remaining piece.  

***Note: If you are using a directional fabric, make sure your pieces are facing the same direction before sewing them together.  

Once the three (or two if you are following the pattern) pieces are sewn together, I pressed the seam allowance to one side.  

Then folding the sash in half lengthwise, I went ahead and cut my angled edges. If find that I sew too far and forget to angle if I don't cut them first.  

Then I stitched around the edges of the sash, leaving a 3" opening along the raw edge for turning.  I also trimmed the corners before turning.  

Then I turned the sash right sides out through the opening.  

Then I pressed it nice and flat...

And topstitched along the edges.

Lining the center of the sash up with the center front and along the waist seam, topstitch the sash along the bottom edge from side seam to side seam.

And then you are DONE!

My daughter loves hers.  My other daughter was less than thrilled when she figured out she didn't have a matching dress, so guess who that second sash I made is for :)

Thanks for joining me on the Stella Sew Along.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!  See you next time...

* If you would like to enter the prize drawing, please make sure you submit a picture of your completed lesson to the Facebook Album by 8:00 AM CT, Tuesday, April 1st. Questions? The Facebook Group is a great place to ask.

Sarah 
My Blog

Sew-Along #13 - Stella Dress - Lesson #3

The Stella Dress View B by Izzy & Ivy Designs

Welcome to the Stella Dress sew-along.  If you have any questions, suggestions, or tips to share; please make sure to post them on our Facebook group.

Hopefully you have already read the Stella Dress instructions all the way through. It's probably a good idea to read through today's lesson once too before you begin.

*All seams for the Stella are ½" unless otherwise stated.

I also want to remind everyone that if you would like to see any of the images posted in this blog larger, just click on them. Let's begin now.


Day 3 - Assembling the Skirt and Bodice.

Hello Everyone!  Welcome to day 3 of the Izzy & Ivy Stella Dress Sew Along. Today we are going to finish assembling the skirt and then assemble the bodice. So, let's get started!

The first step in assembling the skirt is to stitch together the remaining skirt panels.  With right sides together, I placed strip 1 (the widest strip) on top of my ruffle panel and pinned it together.  I pinned here because I wanted to make sure I had my ruffles tucked in flat and to make it easier to keep it all together as I stitched it.

I stitched and serged the seam, then opened it up flat to press and topstitch the seam.  *No serger? Just zigzag stitch the seam's raw edges.

Then I repeated the process; pinning then stitching strip 2 (the narrow strip) to the ruffle panel, on the opposite side.   

After stitching and serging that seam, I opened up, pressed and topstitched.  

Then I repeated the entire process for the other ruffle panel, making two identical panels.  

Once both panels were complete, I stitched them together (right sides together) and serged the seam.  Then I set it aside for attaching to the bodice in the final day of the sew along. 

***Note: We will attach the hem band and gather the skirt in Day 4. 

Then I moved onto the bodice.  

With my bodice front right side up, I matched the arm curve of the sleeve piece (right sides together) to arm curve of the bodice.  I stitched and serged the seam.

Then I added the other sleeve piece to the opposite arm curve of the front bodice piece, right sides together, then stitched and serged the seam.  

Finally, I added the back bodice piece; matching the arm curve and stitching and serging the seam.  At this point, I opened up my dress top flat (because the last bodice/sleeve pieces are not sewn together) and ironed my elastic casings. 

I like to iron my casings before I stitch my pieces because they fold over nicely and I don't have to try to finagle the shaped dress top as I iron.  There are a couple options for finishing the elastic casing.  I serged the raw edge and then ironed it over to make a 3/4" fold.  You could also make a second, smaller fold to tuck the raw edge under and catch it in the casing stitching for a cleaner finish. 

Then I stitched and serged my last remaining arm/bodice seam, unfolding the ironed in casings as I stitched.  

Before sewing the side bodice seams, I also ironed my sleeve casings the same way as I did the neckline. 

Once all of my casings were ironed, I stitched and serged the side seams of the bodice from the edge of the sleeve and down along the side of the bodice (unfolding the sleeve casing as you sew). 

Then I refolded my ironed in casings and stitched a 5/8" seam around the neckline and sleeve casings, leaving a 1" opening for inserting the elastic into the neckline and sleeve casings.  

Using the chart on page 17, I cut my elastic pieces for the neckline and sleeves with 1/4" elastic.  

I have a fancy set of elastic threaders that I can never seem to find, so I usually rely on a big safety pin that always hangs around my sewing table for inserting elastic.  

I pin the safety pin to one end of the elastic and then use the pin to thread and guide the elastic into and through the casing.  

Once the elastic is threaded through the entire casing, I overlapped the edges of the elastic and stitched it together with a few zigzag stitches.  Then I stitched up the 1" opening that I left for inserting the elastic, making sure I was pulling the material and elastic flat before sewing.   

Repeat that process for both sleeves and the neckline. 

And then you are done with day three of the sew along!  For the final day, we just need to attach the hem band, attach the skirt to the bodice and make the sash.

* If you would like to enter the prize drawing, please make sure you submit a picture of your completed lesson to the Facebook Album by 8:00 AM CT, Monday, March 31st. Questions? The Facebook Group is a great place to ask.

Sarah 
My Blog

Sew-Along #13 - Stella Dress - Lesson #2

The Stella Dress View B by Izzy & Ivy Designs

Welcome to the Stella Dress sew-along.  If you have any questions, suggestions, or tips to share; please make sure to post them on our Facebook group.

Hopefully you have already read the Stella Dress instructions all the way through. It's probably a good idea to read through today's lesson once too before you begin.

*All seams for the Stella are ½" unless otherwise stated.

I also want to remind everyone that if you would like to see any of the images posted in this blog larger, just click on them. Let's begin now.


Day 2 - Ruffles, Ruffles, and More Ruffles!

Hello again and welcome to day 2 of the Izzy and Ivy Stella Dress Sew Along. Today we are going to tackle the ruffle panels for the skirt.  They are not hard, but they do take a bit of time to make because of the many ruffles that need to be made.  They are totally worth it though!  It is, in my opinion, what sets this dress apart from the others and gives it the "wow" factor.

So let's get started...

The first step is to finish the long edges of your ruffle strips.  Depending on the size you are making, you will have 12-16 ruffle strips and will need to finish both long edges of each strip.  This is where having a serger is going to come in handy!

If you don't have a serger, no fear!  You can use a narrow hem foot to do a narrow hem on each long edge.  You can also iron a 1/4" fold along the edge, then turn up again with another 1/4" fold to encase the raw edge; stitch along the second fold and you'll have a nice narrow hem for your ruffles.

I used my serger to roll the edges of my ruffles.  To do this, I set the serger to my rolled hem settings (each serger is different, so please consult your owners manual!) and started rolling.

I like to chain stitch my pieces when I am doing a bunch like this.  All that means is that as one piece finishes, instead of stopping and clipping the threads to remove it from the machine, I just keep serging and start another piece.  The pieces are held together by a short chain of stitching in between them.  I clip those chains after I am done with all of the pieces to save time as I am rolling my edges. 

Once I am done rolling one edge, I start all over again rolling the second edge.  

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

Holy smokes! That's a lot of ruffle!

Once the rolled edges are complete, we need to gather the pieces to the same width as the strip 3 piece we will be mounting the ruffles to.  

There are a few methods to gather your ruffles, and you can use whichever one you are comfortable with.  I like to set my stitch length to the longest setting and loosen my tension to about 2.  Then I sew a basting stitch along one edge. Once the basting stitch is sewn, I pull the bobbin thread and gather the material from each side towards the center until I get the correct size.  

For a ruffling project the size of this one, I also like to use my ruffler.  They take a bit of trial and error, but once you get the settings correct, you can ruffle through a project like this in no time!

I used the ruffler for these ruffles, again to save time because there are so many of them, but you can easily do the basting stitch and gathering method.

Once the ruffles are gathered to the same width as strip 3, we are going to place them on the panel and stitch them down.  There are two strip 3 panels; half of the ruffles go on each panel.

***NOTE: Again, if you are using a directional print, now is a good time to make sure you have your print direction correct!

Using the chart on page 12, I pinned the bottom layer of ruffles along the edge at the distance specified in the chart.  For a size 7, it was 5" from the bottom edge.  

I will admit that I did a little measuring and a lots of eyeballing when I placed my ruffles, but on my next dress I think I will mark my lines with chalk or disappearing ink to make it simpler to place my ruffles.  

I am not a huge fan of pinning, but I would strongly encourage a lot of pinning for placing the ruffles.  It makes the process a lot smoother when you are sewing on the ruffles.

Working from the bottom to the top, follow the chart on page 12 to space the ruffles up strip 3.  For the size 7, I spaced each row 2 and 3/4" above the previous row.  I continued placing and pinning each row of ruffles until I had half of the ruffles on one of the strip 3 pieces.  

Once all of the ruffles were pinned to strip 3, I started stitching down each row of ruffles from the top down.

After stitching each row, I flipped up that row to keep it out of the way as I stitched the next lower row.  

Working your way down the panel, continue stitching all of the rows of ruffles. Then...

REPEAT. 

Once you are done with your second ruffle panel, you are done with this step of the sew along (AND the hardest part of the dress, so it's all easy street from here!)

* If you would like to enter the prize drawing, please make sure you submit a picture of your completed lesson to the Facebook Album by 8:00 AM CT, Thursday, March 27th. Note, you have 2 days to complete this lesson.  We thought you might need it with all those ruffles.  ;)  Like always, if you have any questions the Facebook Group is a great place to ask.

Sarah 
My Blog