This patternless pattern works just as nicely, though, from happy cotton scraps from your weird basket of favorite pieces you’re just not sure what you’re going to do with but you’d never throw away.
Remember that this is all just straight line sewing, so even though somebody’s going to WEAR it, it’s still not as intimidating as sewing clothes. You can do it. I swear. Just think TUBES. I’ll explain . . .
STEP #1: PICKING THE RIGHT SCRAPS.
1) ONE long skinny one for the straps and detail (like 2 long pieces of adding machine tape)
2) ONE small one for the chest piece (about the size of a cereal box . . .or a cracker box if you’ve got a kiddo on the tinier side)
3) ONE long one for the dress (think stubby table runner) If all you’ve got is pieces of favorite fabric in tiny little shreds the size of a deck cards, then you can do this quilting style. Just sew a bunch of pieces together until you get panels these sizes.
** A note about mixing fabrics. Here’s the thing—I think fabric wants to do more than just match. I think it wants to talk. I think two fabrics next to each other want to yell out to us, “Hey—did you see the YELLOW in my friend over here?” So when I’m trying to figure what to put with what, I grab the scrap that I’m sure of and then start moving it from one other scrap to the next (think speed dating) and then I stop when I hear somebody yell. I have no PhD in color, so I am reliant on this method.
STEP #2: THE CHEST TUBE.
You watch too much hospital TV. I just meant the tube of fabric that will become the piece that goes around the chest. This is the only part of the ordeal that requires measuring—so run up to your toddler/tiny person and whip a tape measure around their chest. Do this quickly before they yank it off. (Good luck with this part.)
Take that # (the only one you’ll need to measure, remember, or pay attention to) and then see if you’ve got the right size cereal box-sized scrap for this step. You’ll need a piece that’s as long as your little one is around, plus about 4 inches for scooootch room and seams and such. (For example, my Baby Pumpkinhead is 22 inches around, so I needed a chunk 26 inches long.)
If you don’t have a piece this long, there’s lots of work arounds—you can just cut the scrap you do have in half longwise to get the length you need. Just eyeball what looks right for the around-the-chest part. I find anywhere from 2 inches to 4 in width look perfectly nifty.
So that you don't end up with that seam-right-smack-in-the-middle look, cut your piece like this (and then sew it together):
Once you’ve got a piece long enough, give it one finished-seam edge. I’m a big fan of the iron-it-over method: fold the edge over ¼ inch and iron it down, then fold it again while you’re sewing it down. It’s a pin-less, splendiferous way to sew a quick finished edge.
STEP #3: THE STRAPS.
These are just long tubes too. Get yourself two pieces that are about 2 inches X 8 inches, fold them each in half (with the pretty side hiding on the inside) and sew up the sides. (Editor's Note about the Straps: I'd err on the side of making these too long rather than too short, because if they're too short, they ride up on the little baby armpits. Never fun.)
You’ll have two backwards tubes. Then flip them rightside out.
And then topstitch them so they look fancy. (Topstitching just means sew another seam up each finished side about ¼ inch from the edge—which is, handily about the width of your presser foot—so they lie down flat.)
STEP #4: THE FLOOFY DRESS PART.
This little dress can be a lot of things depending on your scrap sizes. It can be a long, full number, or a straight-bodied little mini-dress begging for leggings. Work with what you’ve got. If you want a dress that’s full, then you’ll need a piece for this step that’s about twice as long as your chest piece. (Oh—and put down your tape measure. Just use your chest piece to find out if your scrap meets muster. Fold the big one in half and compare it in size to the little one. Fancy.)
In terms of its width (which will be the length of the dress, actually), I say hold the scrap you’ve got up to your girly-o’s chest and see where it falls. I’ve made these in every imaginable length and haven’t found any yet that aren’t shockingly cute.
Start with the middle pleat. This is your dress anchor. Plus it’s hecka cute. To make a pleat, find the center of the panel by folding the thing in half (and I mean taking the two longest ends and meeting them in the middle). This is your center. Now take two pinches of fabric and tuck them behind. Hmmm. I wonder if that makes sense. Your main pleat will look like this:
Once you fold up the main pleat in the center, then you can add as many or as few as you’d like. The more pleats you add, the fuller the dress will be. Remember that the goal will be to make this piece of fabric match the chest piece. So pleat this one until it's the same size across as the chest piece.
Once you’ve got them all pinned, then run a basting stitch (long and not too tense) about ¼ from the edge and pull the pins out carefully as you go. (Are you seeing that I like ¼ inch seams? Right. It’s because that’s the width of my presser foot and I really don’t like trying to follow the numbers on the plate. Doing that makes me all tense.)
You'll have a big, raggedy, pleated edge scrap chunk when you're done with this step.
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If you like this tutorial, consider hanging out for a while. Wienerdog Tricks is a blog all about making things from thrifted fabric. I hereby totally invite you to click around. We've got more tutorials and patterns, thoughts on post-capitalism and wonk, and great ideas for what to do with old polyster--like the kind your grandma's pants are made of. Sometimes we even talk about quilts.) Sit around and read. Drink some coffee or some gin or something. Lovely to have you. --ginger.
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STEP #5: ADD THE NIFTY FAKE BINDING.
It does look like binding, but it's totally fake. Way easier. Go back to you long skinny strap scrap and cut a piece that's about 1 1/2 or 2 inches wide and as long as the chest piece. Fold it in half longways:
Baste it to the unfinished edge of the chest piece. Make it so that the raggedy edge of the long skinny one lines up with the raggedy edge of the chest piece.
Now sew the two main pieces together (with the good sides facing in to each other). Line them up like this (or pin them together if you're that kind of girl). The fake binding will be hiding inside.
Here's what you'll have so far:
STEP #6: ATTACH THE STRAPS.
Lay the whole thing out and use your center pleat as your centerpoint. Measure about two (2) inches to the right and left of the main pleat and pin (sorry) one end of your straps to the inside of the chest piece on each side. Sew them both down.
It will look like this if you flip it over:
Go ahead and stare at that stitching. I'm not afraid of imperfection. Bring it.
Now measure in two inches from end of the panel and pin and sew down the other end of each strap like this:
STEP #7: FINISH IT ALL UP.
Think of what you’ve got now as a gutted fish. Just sew up the belly. (Sorry, this is gross, but I just watched an old Julia Child show on filleting fish.)
Fold the dress in half with the pretty part hiding inside and sew it up the side. Start at the top of the dress and work hard to get these two pieces aligned. (You might want to baste them first because it’s harder than you’d think. Um. At least for me.)
You're so close to finished it's not even funny. Now just finish the bottom of the dress. It’s nice to wait until this step to do the final finished seam on the bottom. That way, if you’ve ended up with edges that are off, you can hide it and nobody will know. Then do your tricky iron-over 1/4 inch and then flip-again-and-sew method from STEP #2 for finishing the bottom edge.
