This has been one of the most popular tutorials we’ve ever had, and we’re excited that we now have a butterfly digital design to go with it! You can just print the size you need, instead of having to draw one yourself. Grab it here. This would work perfectly on the Becky Skirt Pattern!
To start I took a skirt of my daughter’s to use as a pattern. I chose a thick gray knit as the fabric for the skirt (it was left over from my Superhero Circle Dress from Week 1 of the Sew Along). I just made a simple A-line skirt with no seem allowance for the top since I planned on using 1.5 inch elastic for the exposed waistband.
After the front and back of the skirt was cut out, I sewed one of the side seems together and laid out the skirt flat. Next I drew out the butterfly design, I used the skirt shape to dictate the cropping on the butterfly.
Take your design and trace it on to Iron-On Fusible Interfacing, make sure that you reverse the image!
Iron the butterfly onto the black fabric.
Next- cut it out.
Peel off the paper from the back of the butterfly, you will need this for a template in a minute.
For my butterfly I wanted a rainbow, but at this step you could use a cute print or a solid color. I choose my colors and sewed them together in 1.5 inch strips.
After the strips are sewed together and ironed flat, use the paper backing off of the Iron-On Fusible Interfacing as a template and cut out the wings.
Iron the black part of the butterfly onto the colors. Take another piece of interfacing and iron it onto the back of the entire butterfly. Then iron that piece onto the skirt.
Next you have to zigzag around all the black raw edges. I sewed with black thread…
but with a gray bobbin thread so that I didn’t have to line the skirt.
I sewed the skirt together at the other side then I attached the 1.5 inch black elastic as the waistband.
I took these photos with her wearing a black leotard as her top but a 3 year old wearing a leotard all day is really not ideal for going to the bathroom. So I refashioned a slimming black tank top from an old (very old!) tube top if you hop over to my blog you can check out the tutorial!
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This is a really neat upgrade you could use for a lot of patterns! I hope you’ll give this wave pleat technique a try!
Hello! I’m Cherie from you & mie and I’m so excited to be here on Project Run & Play! Before the Project Run & Play sew-along began, I had just started dabbling in making children’s clothing. But seeing all the amazing work of the competitors and being able to participate with the fantastic sew-alongers really pushed me to a whole new level. I’ve been challenged to try so many new things and learned so much in the last 6 months. Not only that, but I’ve joined an amazing community of talented and brilliant sewists and bloggers. So I have Project Run & Play and the ladies behind it, liZ and Elizabeth, to thank for so much of what I’ve done! Thanks for everything and for inviting me here today!
Summer weather is upon us and my daughter needs lots of warm weather tops for outdoor play this season. I’m going to share a tutorial for my latest top, the Summer Breezes Top.
I saw a tank top in a store about a year ago that used this type of “wavy pleats” (as I like to call them). I knew I wanted to copy the style, but wasn’t sure how I wanted to do it. Recently, this technique started popping up around blogland and I decided it was time to share my take on it as well. The waves created by the changing directions of the pleats reminded me of a summer’s breeze, hence the name of the top.
The top is made of white linen, which at the time seemed like the perfect simple breezy summer top. But now I’m kicking myself wondering what I was thinking! A white top for a messy, dirt-loving toddler made of linen, the most wrinkly fabric ever? Awesome job, Cherie. Nice. So I’ll let you choose whatever is appropriate for your kiddo.
This top is finished off with bias tape, so feel free to make your own or use store-bought in either a matching or contrasting color/pattern. Feel free to brighten it up with some colors!
Ok, let’s make one together! Here’s what you’ll need:
3/4-1 yard of lightweight fabric
A few yards of bias tape (store bought or homemade)
First you have to make your pattern. I have to admit, I don’t have an exact science for this, so I hope you can experiment with drafting your own. To keep it simple, I made one pattern to use for both the front and back of the top.
I started with a straight vertical line which is the center fold of the pattern piece. Then I used a top that fit my daughter and traced the neckline. Mark the bottom of the arm hole and draw a curved line up to meet the neckline. From the bottom of the armhole, draw a line (I flared mine out slightly for an A-line shape) that is the desired length of the top. From there, draw a slight curve back to the vertical center line. You will not need to add seam allowance to the neckline, armhole or bottom since we’ll be finishing these off with bias tape. You will want to add seam allowance along the side seam. And there’s your pattern!
Now we’ll make the pleated placket (I’m not really sure what else to call it). Cut a rectangle out of your main fabric that is at least 8 inches wide and a couple inches longer than the length of your pattern.
Find the center of your rectangle by folding it in half lengthwise and marking it. I wanted my pleats to be 1 cm each, so I made 7 marks on either side of the center, each 1 cm apart. Do the same on the bottom of the rectangle.
Starting from the left, make your pleats. Folding your fabric with wrong sides together, the first and third marking should match up and the 2nd mark is where the fold is.
Press your fold and sew along the length of the fabric 1 cm from the folded edge.
Press your pleat and fold it down toward the right. Make your next pleat using the next three markings and continue until you have five pleats.
When they are all pressed down toward the right, they should look like this.
Sew a line across the top of the pleats about 1 inch down from the top. Change the direction of your pleats by folding them towards the left. Mark a line 2 inches down from your first line with chalk and sew.
Continue changing the direction and sewing down the pleats every 2 inches until you get to the bottom.
Cut out two pieces of fabric that are each larger than your pattern piece. We’re going to attach the pleated placket before cutting out the pattern piece (less math).
Trim the edges of your placket piece to about 1/2 an inch on either side. With right sides together, sew the placket to the edge of one piece of fabric, and then repeat with the other side.
On the wrong side, trim the seam allowance to 1/4 inch and finish by serging or zig zag stitching. Press away from the placket, then on the right side, top stitch along the edge of the placket.
Fold your fabric in half, making sure to fold right down the center of your pleated placket and trace your pattern piece. Cut it out. Cut out the back piece from a piece of fabric as well.
Pin the sides of the top, right sides together, sew, press and finish edge. Repeat on other side.
Baste the pleats along the neckline of the top to keep them folded in the correct direction.
Open up your bias tape and pin it along the edge of the neckline, right sides together. Sew along the fold closest to the edge.
Fold the bias tape over the edge of the neckline, press and pin. Make sure the edge of the bias tape is covering the stitching on the wrong side.
Top stitch just above the edge of the bias tape making sure to catch the edge on the wrong side. Trim off the extra bias tape and repeat for the back.
For the armholes and straps, we’ll do the same thing. Leave about 12 inches of bias tape for the strap then start pinning the open tape to the edge of the armhole. Measure another 12 inches of bias tape when you get to the other end of the armhole and cut. Sew the bias tape along the armhole, fold the bias tape back up and when you get to end of the straps, fold it in about a 1/4 inch before folding it up.
Sew the ends of the straps closed, then top stitch along the edge of the bias tape closing up the straps and finishing the armhole.
For the bottom of the shirt, normally I’d just hem it by folding it up twice, but with all the extra pleated fabric, I thought it’d get too thick, so I finished it with bias tape as well.
Done!
I hope you enjoy some nice summer weather and I’d love if you stopped by you & mie to say “hi” some time! Thanks for letting me join in on the fun! – Cherie
We love this technique! It’s the most accessible way to start playing with changing your substrate, because it just takes one product, that’s in most grocery stores: bleach! Check out this tutorial, and then go search for some inspiration to create your own!
One of the things I love about participating in Project Run and Play is that it always forces me to stretch and challenge myself to try new things. When it was announced that my week’s theme would be Stash Bash I will admit that I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get an excuse to go on a fabulous fabric shopping spree to pick out just what I wanted. But, in limiting my resources it pushed me to try a technique I’d never done, but had wanted to try: Bleach Dying!
Bleach dying is basically the opposite of tie dying where your intention is to remove colors rather than add them. You can achieve similar design effects using tie dye techniques to manipulate the fabric before you add the bleach which can create some really interesting effects.
Bleach Dying Tutorial
Supplies
Fabric to Bleach
Bleach
Spray Bottle
Gloves
Water (optional)
Rubber bands (optional)
Large Tub (optional)
I found some plain black French Terry in my stash and knew they would make some great Joseph Joggers. But, I wanted to add a bit of design detail and decided to try and bleach the fabric. Before I began, I read a few tutorials which told me that natural fibers tend to bleach better than others and they suggested some variation of a bleach to water ratio. As my fabric had a higher polyester content I decided to use a pure bleach solution with no water. I also made sure to do a small test patch before jumping in and spraying down my whole fabric piece.
Once I saw that the bleach would indeed have an effect on my fabric, I loaded up my spray bottle, spread my fabric out on the lawn, and began spraying! If you don’t want to try spraying, you can use rubber bands to section out pieces of the fabric and create different textures and looks depending on their placement, then either spray or submerge the fabric in a large tub. Almost any tie dye technique can be repeated using bleach instead of dye!
It was interesting to watch the colors begin to change, but it was also somewhat challenging to know just where and how much bleach was on each section. I noticed that the grass helped create some cool textures in the spray patterns based on how the fabric was laying on it.
When bleach dying, it’s important to give the bleach enough time to do it’s thing, but you can also stop it from processing by rinsing it then giving it a go in the washer and dryer whenever you feel you like what you see. I think I waited 15-20 mins before I rinsed and washed my fabric.
One thing I did notice about the color, which other tutorials had prepared me for, was it had a rusty orange tone to it. Oftentimes when lifting black you won’t get a gray or white look. You will end up with orange or pinkish tones where the bleach is.
Knowing I wanted a less orange look to coordinate with my planned outfit, I decided to dye over the fabric with a grey pearl color from Rit Dye. This helped knock out some of those rusty hues and left me with a more taupe colored finish on the bleached areas. It ended up working perfectly with the other color tones of my fabrics.
One thing I may consider doing differently next time is to make the garment completely and then bleach it so I can control exactly where I put it on the finished piece. Though it was much easier to do an entire piece of fabric laid out all together, I just had to be careful with how I cut the fabric to get the desired look in the end.
I hope you enjoyed this short tutorial on bleach dying and would love to hear if you try it! To see more patterns and inspiration from the Project Lounge Library Capsule Collection click here.
Check out some more fun bleach dyed looks from around the Project Run and Play community! Then give it a try yourself!
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