Dolling Up a Peasant Dress Day 2

(Continued from THIS POST)

3. Unexpected Fabrics

For this dress I decided to use some purple crushed velvet. This stuff is a PAIN to work with. I really had a make it work moment because just as I would put it through the serger it would fray all to pieces!

Confession: This crushed velvet was purchased to make a jacket for my finale look for Project Run and Play. I got all the pieces cut out but when I started to sew them together the fabric would fray and the seam would come apart! I was down to the wire, the day before the submission was due, so I just scrapped it. I was too frustrated to make it work.

I finally figured out that if I moved the blade on the serger up so that it didn't hit the fabric as it went by that it helped a lot. I also made the stitches closer together.

With this dress I added a ruffle to the bottom by cutting the velvet as I would a circle skirt. This is called a flounce hem, and there's a great tutorial here.

4. Add a "necklace"

I think this dress is my favorite. Since the bodice fabric is rather tame I thought I'd doll it up with a pom pom trim necklace. I just pinned it in place and sewed it on before I sewed the dress together. Easy peasy! I also added a band of fabric to the bottom for some visual interest. Cute + no hemming! YAY!

I super duper love the way the tulle hair bow came out. All I did was take a strip of tulle that was about 6 inches wide and 24 inches long and gather it at the middle. Then I pressed the edges under on a small scrap of fabric and hot glued it around the tulle. I think it's the quickest hair bow I've ever made and possibly the cutest!