Because every little girl NEEDS a full tulle dress =)

I hacked the recently released Sugar Ruche dress by Candy Castle Designs into a very full tulle dress and lived to tell the tale! 

If you are looking into making a georgeous tulle dress for a little one that is simple (at least as simple as tulle dresses can be =p ) then read on!

So this is the ruched version of the pattern in dress length. The outer fabric is very soft tulle and the inner fabric is slinky and soft rayon.

I'm going to tell you how I hacked the pattern to achieve this look! But first, you need to purchase the pattern here!

Now that you have the pattern, here's what you do:

You are going to need 1 front ruched piece in tulle (This version i made is using the exact dimensions provided. But seeing as it is tulle and therefore very light, my suggestion for an even prettier ruched look in the front bodice is to double or even triple the height of the bodice front)

You also need 2 front linings. Preferably in something really soft and thin. Rayon works great or thin cotton lawn wld be perfect (and easier to sew too) 

For the back, you are going to need 1 back bodice piece in tulle and 2 back bodice lining pieces.

I skipped the strap pieces, choosing to instead use 2 pieces of lace that is cut to the length indicated on the pattern cut chart.  

For the skirt piece, you will need skirt pieces in both tulle and lining (the number depends on the size you chose to make, for my girl who is a 12m/18m blend, she needs 2 pieces in tulle and 2 in rayon) You will also want to follow the height for the skirt pieces but use the entire WOF. For bigger sizes, I would make sure to at least double the width of the skirt pieces for the tulle. For ease of gathering, I also added additional seam allowance at the top of the tulle skirt so that i can gather further in from the edge of the tulle. This is optional if you are really good at gathering tulle!

You will follow the original instructions for the bodice exactly with 1 exception: sew the back bodice tulle piece to one of the back bodice lining piece together on all four sides with a seam allowance of 1/4 inch. Treat that as ur "back bodice main". 

Now that your bodice is done, let's talk about gathering tulle. (This is not as bad as you may think!) 

Candy Castle Designs has very clear instructions on how to gather ur skirts and there's not just 1 or 2 methods, but a total of 3! My preference was to use the dental floss/zigzag method that was described in her instructions. Here's a photo of how that looks like... 

What I liked about this method is the ease at which i can adjust the gathers without worrying about the thread breaking which frequently happens for the normal long stitches, high tension gathering method (especially when u have long long pieces to gather!) 

After gathering both tulle and rayon skirt pieces to the correct length, u can simply sew/serge them together at the top first, then attach the skirt to ur bodice. (go slow here, The skirt is BULKY!) 

You hem the rayon skirt lining but not the tulle so the tulle will be longer than the lining at the end. And that's it! 

A beautiful tulle dress perfect for the Ball. She's looking for her glass slippers here 😆

Now who wants to give this tulle dress a try? =)

More photos =)

Because it is going to be National Day soon...

Every year on August 9th, Singapore celebrates National Day. 

If you don't know this already, I'm a teacher so every year, on National Day, I would always dress in the Nation's colors (Red and White) to celebrate our Nation's birthday with my students. 

But actually... Red isn't my color. Not really. I find that I tend not to wear red anything, but I mean, it's National day!

So this year, I'm really quite excited to be making my own red and white outfit. At least it's going to look nice and conform to my aesthetics 😆

I'm also incredibly lucky to be given to opportunity to be a guest sewist for Sew PDF Showcase. This is a really cool source of pdf patterns by small independent pdf companies. They showcase a pdf pattern every week and this week's PDF showcase is by Buttons and Bib! (this new pattern company is very promising! You should go check out their stuff - many of the dress patterns are lovely!) 

I shall be using their Summer Staple Dress for my National Day dress - yay~

This is a knit bodice, woven skirt dress and it's my first time ever putting woven skirts on knit bodices! I used clear elastic to gather the woven skirt - so easy! and then serged the bodice and skirt together after. 

This whole dress was ensembled in record time too. The woven fabric i used for the skirt is crepe so there's a lovely texture that contrasted very nicely with the stretchy, very smooth poly-spandex knit with a slight sheen that I bought in "wine red" that i used for the bodice. 

At first i was slightly concerned that if i attach a woven skirt on a knit bodice the waist area might not stretch enough to go over my head. But my concerns were unfounded as the clear elastic gathering method really helps ensure that the waist area is still very nice and stretchy and the waist is still cinched in enough to not look baggy. 

And yes... did i mention pockets? Pockets always! These pockets are huge! Big enough for my galaxy note! 

One interesting thing to note about this dress is, unlike many knit dresses, the waist actually has positive ease. That means everything there is nice and relaxed, not tight and figure hugging. Just thought some of us may appreciate a pattern like that for days when we are feeling bloated or perhaps... for BUFFET days where we aim to eat alot and don't want our tummies to feel restricted 😆😆😆

If you would like a good deal on this pattern it is now ON SALE. Only at Sew PDF Showcase for 1 week! 

Pajamas for the little one!

I'm always on the lookout for comfortable pajamas for my little ones and there's always a need for comfy PJs in this house. 

I recently got to test for Sew a Little Seam's latest pattern Nightingale and can you tell this little one loved it?

The Nightingale set is designed for knit fabrics and there's a top, knee and maxi version. There's also shorts and pants to mix and match the PJ sets! 

The one above is the ruffle sleeves but there is also long, short, tulip, gathered and sleeveless tops. The bodice has a ruffle and gathered or colorblock option and there's even optional plackets and bottom ruffles. 

I think it would take me forever to finish making all the options! Don't you love it when there's so many options in one pattern tt u buy?

The pattern includes sizes 3 months to 12 years and plus sizes 4-12 years. You can choose to buy just 1 size or the bundle. 

Baby Camilla

It's been a long while since we can go out and explore our parks and play outside. To commemorate going out for some exercise, I made a summer dress for the little one.

 This is Camilla by Simple Life Pattern Co!

Don't you just love the straps and the scalloped back? I used a discontinued print by Laura Blythman that I bought from Spotlight. (Recognise it? I used this to make a backpack for the girl!)

The dress comes in top, vintage and dress length and has tiered skirts too. I made mine with a sweetheart neckline but there's also the classic scoop neckline.

Some people worry about sewing scallops cos if not done right, it just doesn't look as good. Here's what I have learnt: clip clip and clip ur seam allowance! Especially at the corners, really take ur time to clip the seam allowance down to make sure that it turns out right, using a chopstick to poke at the curves. Then iron it crisp so that it stays in that shape and top stitch! 

Hacking the Winter Wear Design Double Take Tank into a dress

You can never have too many woven tanks in your wardrobe. They are a staple in a summer wardrobe and where I come from, it's summer all year round!

When done well, woven tanks can be very flattering and comfortable. Depending on the fabric choice, you can even use a woven tank as a shell blouse for work to complement the work skirts and pants you own!

This is the Double Take Tank by Winter Wear Designs:

It's a wonderfully flattering woven tank that has many different options. This version uses the scoop back, shirt tail hem option. I liked it cos it was incredibly quick to make and the bust darts gave it (and me) curves. 😅 This tank I made is a mystery black poly-cotton blend and I think plain black goes so so well with so many bottoms! Win!

Because I loved how it fits as a tank, I thought perhaps I could hack the pattern into a 

dress instead because I have always preferred "work dresses". Dresses means I don't have to worry about matching top and bottom and in the morning, you sometimes just want to slip something on and get moving =p 

My "hacked" version of the double take tank:

(Can u tell I had fun doing this photoshoot? 😂) I even put on makeup! And I don't even bother that much for work!

 

This dress is LOVE LOVE LOVE! It's made using slinky slinky rayon which was a b*tch to cut and sew. It frays like mad. but the end result.... was WORTH IT. 

So are you sold on it yet? Let's talk about hacking! Thankfully, it was really easy to hack this tank! 

So what I did was, I wore the black tank (that's the one on top) then held a cloth measuring tape up against it and measured the additional length I needed for a knee length dress (that's 11 inches for me, height 167cm)

Then, I cut along the shorten/lengthen line on the pattern pieces for front and back (I used the straight hem for both pieces), shifted it down by 11 inches, tape additional paper on, redrew the sides, cut the new pattern out and that's it!! 

At first I was worried that I may need more width at the bottom so I can slip the dress over my head since there are no closures (YES! No zippers!! Woot!) So I actually did increase the width at the bottom a little for my first draft. Then after I baste and tried it on, I decided I don't need that extra width and snipped off the excess.

I think it looks really good with a belt too!

 

I hope this post has inspired you to try it yourself! And if you do try it, please let me know how it went!! Can't wait to hear from everyone! 

If you don't have the pattern, you can get it here: Double Take Tank by Winter Wear Designs. Suzanne Winters have very kindly placed the summertime blog patterns, 15 patterns on a summer time $4 SALE. 

The collection can be found here. 

This is an aff link, if you purchase anything after clicking on the link, I will get some commission at no extra cost to you - that gives me a bit of spare change to buy more fabric! =p 

Also, full disclosure, I did get this pattern for free as part of the summer time blog tour but all the comments and thoughts are my own =)

This post is part of the #summertimeblogtour2020 by WinterWear Designs. 

Thank you for stopping by! 💖💖💖

Don't miss out on any of these stops on our Summertime Blog Tour:

6/29

Patricia of Sew Far North

6/30

Alyssa of The Sewing Goatherd

Lim of KekeSews

Ilse of Sew Sew Ilse

7/1

Debbie Groves Guest Posting at WWD

Diane of Sewing With D

7/2

Livia of Liviality

Laurie of The Bear and the Pea Atelier

Rachael of Sew Below the Willow Tree

7/3

Aurelie of Maglice&So

Rachel of Violet and Jewels

Donnisha Jones Guest Posting at WWD

Pattern testing - Seiri Bag

My first pattern test for bags is for the Seiri Bag by Porcupine Patterns

Why "seiri"? The pattern designer wrote that "The word Seiri is from 整理 in Japanese which translates to organize / put in order, which is the idea behind this bag."

And indeed, what's great about this bag is that there are 3 very very roomy compartments where I can stuff practically anything and everything into. 

I call it my doraemon bag and I've been using it ever since I finished testing it back in July 2019. 

Back then, I was still a stay-at-home mum and that bag was my essential day outing bag with kids. I stuffed it full of diapers and wet wipes, food and water bottles, nursing cover and tissues, my wallet, handphone, keys, umbrella... and it was able to hold everything! AMAZING. (This is the M size btw, there's also L which cld hold a laptop! and S which is petite but still holds ALOT!)

Let me show off some design elements I put into this bag:

The coolest thing about making my own bag is the fact that I am the one deciding everything, from pattern placement to inner pockets. I used a beautiful japanese keshiki design fabric and I loved the selvage design so much I knew I wanted to incorporate it into the bag somehow. Then I realised that using it as part of the zipper top wld be beautiful so that was what I did!

The zippers were actually very expensive jacket zippers that were oh-so-smooth to pull open and close. They were not cheap but I'm glad I used them cos they added a touch of 'posh' to the whole bag.

And I wasn't kidding about using this bag everywhere:

Here's the bag, on a beach!

One way of knowing that a pattern is good is whether the tester makes more. And well... I did make more... 3 more ~~~

Seiri Bag M and S sizes, outer compartment hacked to be non-zippered!

Seiri bag M size thick canvas (not recommended! Birthing was HARD!)

Hope you enjoyed seeing my Seiri Bag creations! And hope u will try making one too! 

Bella Sunshine Designs Isabella Banded Skirt

Let's talk about a FREE skirt pattern! This is the Isabella Banded Skirt from Bella Sunshine Designs.

I'm wearing the ladies version which can be found here and my girl's wearing the girl's version.

It's free for all subscribers of their newsletter and you can get links to the free copy after subscribing!

Easy!


What I love about this skirt is the fact that it is so fast and easy. A quick sew for when you need that little bit of sewing therapy.

You don't even need to print anything if you don't want to! The measurements for the skirt are all provided so you can get right to it. And it's great cos you don't have to worry about it not fitting right since all u have to do is check your measurement with the chart and cut out accordingly! There's grading instructions too!

And for a free pattern, it's even nicer that it comes with 2 length options so you can choose whether you prefer a longer length (that's the one we are wearing) or a super cute above knee length!

Did you notice the lace detail on my girl's skirt?

Clear instructions on how to add various types of trims are also found in the tutorial so this is the perfect pattern for a beginner to use!

If you have a lot of woven fabric in your stash (like me), this is an easy way to use them all up! (Then u can buy more! 😂)

So, do consider subscribing to their newsletter to get this lovely, BEGINNER FRIENDLY skirt pattern FREE~~~~~

Psst!! Want MORE free patterns? Join their facebook group and you can grab the Reagan Raglans for kids and ladies (including plus sizes!) Just check the pinned post for the coupon code to make them 100% free!

(I've made so so many Reagan Raglans already! They are very well drafted!)

Bags and bags galore - some of my old self-drafted works.

I often see sewists who say that they only sew garments cos bags are hard, or they would say they only sew bags cos garments are hard. I suppose it's really because garments and bags require different skill sets...

I tried sewing bags and while I like bag sewing, the interfacing, the precise measurements, the notion buying makes me think... bags are harder than garments! hahaha. That said, if I were to 'teach' a friend to sew, I would rather point them to a bag pattern than a garment one! =p

After sewing quite a few bags, I found that precision really matters in sewing bags, the seam allowances need to be followed strictly, the steps and the birthing. oh man, the birthing can be hard!

I started my bag making journey with a simple self drafted drawstring bag:

Then moved on to more complicated designs (also self drafted):

Then there was these:

   

All self drafted! But I must say, self drafting is difficult! and while it is fun to come up with the exact dimensions we need, the difficulty in imagining the bag in 3D and then breaking it down to 2D pattern pieces meant bag making is slow when u are self drafting.

Thankfully there are wonderful pdf bag patterns out there to use!

Like these:

These are made with a  FREE pattern i found on youtube! There's many free bag patterns on youtube which is great for beginners to start on! 

I realised with making bags is u have to get so many new notions and tools. One good way to save some money is to use stuff from the old bags u may have lying ard. For example, the hello kitty backpack actually reused all the buckles and rectangular rings from another old bag of my eldest that can't be used anymore.