Sew-Along #19 - Riley Dress and Dapper Bow Tie + Suspenders - Lesson 5

The Dapper and Riley by Modkid

Today is the day we finish our Riley dress.  Woot!  Are you excited??

Please read the Riley pattern directions all the way through if you haven't already.  It's probably a good idea to read through this lesson before you begin also.

If you would like to see any of the images larger that are posted in this blog, just click on them.  It might be helpful in some steps.  Let's begin now.

A. Attaching the Collar to the Dress

1.  Sew gathering stitches at the top of your center front panel. 

2. With right sides together pin the center front notch of the collar onto the center front notch of the dress.

3. Repeat for the back center notch.

4. Pull up the gathering stitches on the center front panel. 

5. Finish pinning the collar to to the dress all the way around, adjusting the gathers to make the dress and collar fit.

6. Stitch together using a ½" seam allowance, being very careful to not catch up the rest of your dress in the stitching.  Finish the seam with a zig-zag or overlock stitch.

7. Flip the collar up and press well.  Be very careful with a hot iron and your elastic button loop.  It can melt.

8. Top stitch around the collar.  

9. I decided to add my labels at this point.  My secret to applying labels quickly and perfectly positioned?  Washaway Wonder Tape to the rescue, again.  Have I told you lately how much I love this stuff?  I put a small piece on the front of the size tag.  Stick it to the main tag.  Then, add a longer strip on the back of the main tag and stick it where I want on my garment.  It stays in place with no pins.  Perfect!

 

 

 

B. Adding Sleeve and Hem Ruffles (or Bands).

Note: If you are simply hemming your sleeves or dress hem, just follow the instructions in the booklet and you are done.  :)

1. Ruffles     (If you are doing a banded hem or sleeve, skip down to step 2.)

a.) Place your two hem ruffle pieces right sides together and stitch both short ends to form a long circular band.   Press seams open.  Then, fold your long band in half lenghtwise with wrong sides.  Press well.

b.) I then mark my two sides seams, match them up to each other and mark my center front and center back.  I then also mark between each of these marks for a total of 8 marks.  It might be the world worst ruffler and having so many marks helps me space the ruffles more evenly. 

c.) I also find the center front and center back of the dress and mark them.  Then, using those two marks I find the true sides of the dress and mark them.  Finally, I find and mark the center point between each of those four marks.

d.) Next, make a long gathering stitch withing the seam allowance of the ruffle.

e.) Pull up your gathers and pin your ruffle onto your hem, matching up all those marks.  I didn't take a picture of that, but here is a very blurry picture of the sleeve.  You hopefully get the idea  :)

     
f.) Stitch the ruffle onto the hem of the dress using a ½" seam allowance.

g.) Finish your seam with a zig-zag or overlock stitch.

h.) Press your seam up towards the dress.  Again, picture is of the sleeve, but it's the same method.

 

i.) Top stitch.

 j.) Repeat all of these steps for the sleeves, except you only have one strip of fabric for each sleeve, not two.

2. Hem and Sleeve Bands

I didn't want to put a ruffle on one of my dresses, but I still wanted a pop of color at the hem and sleeve ends.  So, I decided to add bands.  I like to do this often.  It's more simple than a ruffle and just fits the personality of my older daughter better.

a.) The first thing you will need to do is measure the circumference of your hem.  Mine was 54 inches.  I knew I needed two pieces of fabric for the hem band to cover that large of a circumference, so I added 2 inches to that for a total of 56 inches.  Thus, needed two strips of fabric 28 inches long each. If your circumference is smaller and/or your width of fabric is wider and you can get by using just one strip of fabric, just add 1 inch to your hem circumference. 

I knew I wanted my hem band 2 inches wide, so my hem band needed to be a total of 5 inches wide to accommodate a ½" seam allowance.

Thus, I tore two pieces of fabric 28" long by 5" wide.

b.) Place your hem band pieces right sides together and stitch both short ends with a ½" seam allowance.

c.) Press upon your seams.

d.) With wrong sides together, fold your hem band in half lengthwise and press.

e.) Mark your dress center front and dress center back.  Then, using those marks, find the true sides of your dress and mark them.  I also mark my hem band sides and center front and center back.

f.) Pin your hem band onto your hem making sure to match up these marks.

g.) Stitch with a ½" seam allowance.  Press the seam up towards the dress and then top stitch.

h.) Repeat this same method for the sleeve ends if desired.  For my sleeve ends I wanted a nice narrow ½" band so I used a 2" width for my fabric.

You are all done!  Congratulations!!  Now slip this cute dress on that little girl and snap some pictures to share with us.

* If you would like to enter the prize drawing, please make sure you submit a picture of your completed lesson five to the Facebook Album by 12:00 noon CT, Tuesday, December 9th.  Also, if you have any questions the Facebook Group is a great place to ask.

Thanks for sewing with me,

Danielle Storm

www.whimsicalfabric.com