Miss Emmie's "Anthro" dress Part 3

So we are finally here!!! If you haven't read Part 1 and Part 2, of the making of this dress, feel free to go back and look. As a reminder here is the In An Instant dress from Anthropologie.

And now here is my version of the dress made for $11 from materials bought at Walmart........

Anthropologie's In An Instant back.

Miss Emmie's Dress from the back.

The pleated shoulders on the In An Instant dress.

The pleated shoulder and added sleeve of Miss Emmie's dress.

The belt on the In An Instant dress.

The belt on Miss Emmie's dress.

This child was soooo excited to wear her very own "Anthropologie" dress to school, I only got pictures of her after she got home, so this is the dress after it had been worn all day at school, not to shabby huh? I love that although it has all the style of the original, the more casual knit fabric really holds up well as a play dress (and it washes well since she has worn it everyday it has been clean, directly after it comes out of the wash.) I made the top a little less fitted then the inspiration dress, because it was for a little girl, (I don't love skin tight stuff on kids) the top also has a little added length so it blouses a bit at the waist - this has a two fold reason, one so it is less constricting, and two so she can still get a little taller and not shorten the length of the skirt.

I made a quick little headband out of a few scraps and some elastic, it wasn't anything fancy so I didn't take pictures of the process.

As you can tell, I had one happy customer on my hands with this one, and she is definitely looking out for more "Anthro" dresses for me to copy for her!

I love comments, and would love to hear what you think about this project!!!

I'm linking up at......

 Blue Cricket Design

Miss Emmie's "Anthro" dress Part 2

So I probably should have included this picture in Part 1, since it's the last skirt shot, but I was only really including pictures from one upload session, and this one didn't fit, so it's officially here. ;)

After getting the waistband all sewn into a circle and with its elastic, I then evenly divided the skirt over the waistband, and pinned box pleats in place. I then took my lining waistband and made a band - pleated skirt - band, sandwich (which I don't have a picture of.) Next I serged around the top of the skirt piece so that all that was now missing was the shirt.

I made the shirt pattern by tracing around the edges of a pajama top Emmie has, that is about the same fit as I wanted for the dress. I made it short enough to be high waisted, but left a enough for a little bit of blousing at the waist. Emmie wanted sleeves added to her dress so she could wear it to school (her school has a no tank top policy) so I made a sleeve pattern too. I don't have any pictures of the process of cutting out the shirt fabric, it was just your basic regular pattern pieces on fabric deal.

Next I serged the shoulder seams, and then folded them in half with the good side in. The Anthro dress has pleats at the shoulder, so I wanted them in Emmie's dress too.
I used the stretch stitch on my sewing machine to sew a 2.5 inch long line, 3/8" in from the edge.
I then serged around the neck hole, and turned the edge, I used my coverstitch machine to make the stretchable double row of stitching at the neck, but a twin needle on a sewing machine would basically do the same thing.

so I basically got in too much of a hurry to finish the dress, to keep taking pictures, so the rest will have to just be described, feel free to ask any questions though if I am not clear enough!

I sewed the sleeves on with my serger, sewed the side seams, and finished the sleeve edges the same way as the neck. I then attached the shirt to the top with my serger, I sewed both the outer waistband and the lining in with this one seam rather then trying to do just the outer and then hand stitch the inner for a completely seam concealing finish (it needs to stretch after all,) so on the bottom of the waistband you see no serging from the inside, but on the top you do if that makes any sense.

I then used my coverstitch machine to topstitch a decorative double row, top and bottom on the waistband. I then took the ribbon that started it all and sewed it to one side seam with just a straight top stitch in the seam, brought it around the back and sewed it on the other side seam the same way, (that way the belt will always be centered and won't get lost.) I then trimmed the ribbon and used a lighter to melt the edges so they won't fray.

So now I was done with the dress! Stay tuned for tomorrow, when we will have the big reveal! (Here's the link to part 3)

Miss Emmie's "Anthro" dress Part 1

So remember how I said a while back I made my daughter a "anthro" dress made entirely out of things purchased from Walmart, and then I got busy with school and didn't post the pictures or anything? Well, I have finally gotten my behind in gear and blogged about it!

As a reminder, here is the dress she wanted, Anthropologie's In An Instant dress which costs $98.

While I LOVE my daughter a lot, I am not buying her a $98 dress - ever (well maybe a big white one, one day. But until then, no $98 dresses....) Anyway, it wouldn't matter if I *was* willing to spend the dough, it doesn't come in almost 9 years-old size anyway! So, while cruising Walmart one fine afternoon, I came across the perfect ribbon for the belt, perfect like whoa! Anyway, it was a perfect match, so I mentioned as a joke to my husband that it would be fun to make a "Anthro" dress for Emmie totally out of things found at Walmart, and he said "You totally have to!" So we ran around the store looking for the best matches we could find to the In An Instant dress.

The grey tank top is an extra large from the women's department for $4, I got the biggest size I could so that I had more fabric to work with. The yellow tank top was a 3XL from the men's department and it was $5, the ribbon came from the craft section and was $2.

I began the project by cutting the entire lower half of the yellow shirt off in order to use it for the skirt, I love that it already has a hem in place, so that's less work for me! (there are also no side seams since this fabric was knit in the round.)

I then used the rest of the upper body to cut out 4 pieces 3.5" tall x half my daughter's waist measurement (+ seam allowance.)
I used my serger to sew 2 pieces together in order to create the inner lining and outer waistband pieces.
I then made them both into the full circles, serging down the other side seam. I want the dress to be pull over, but also keep its shape and not get stretched out; so I serged silicone elastic around the top and bottom of the outer waistband piece. The elastic is just there to make sure the waistband stays close to it's original shape, not gather or cinch anything, so I didn't stretch it as I sewed.

I have decided to break this dress up into several parts, so I will post more tomorrow! (Here's Part 2)

So I know I've been a bum.......

So I know I promised Emmie's dress weeks ago, but I have just gone crazy as my last few weeks of school have rolled around. I will get the pictures up, but I want to do it properly and do a tutorial along with it, so it will be worth waiting for I promise!

In the meantime I am planning some of my summer projects, I want to finally finish my master bedroom and bathroom, so I am trying to get a handle on what I need to do for that.

The Polyvore picture is made up of come close matches and identical matches to what I have, now I just need to bring it all together, I am trying to not spent much money, so I want to use what I have to do most of it, even if that includes repainting/re-purposing.

Anyway, mostly this is a parking spot for my ideas to percolate!