ideally wanted this video to be as simple and straightforward and quick as possible and yet
i'm working in the most chaotic circumstances i have in a while because i genuinely
don't know where everything is right now
the studio is not quite unpacked literally today i realized i don't know where my measuring tape
is but we will unearth it as we go because i thought we could do something a little comforting
to ease into this chicken soup for the sewing machine a classic thrift flip i hit up the
bed sheet section i got this lovely one with all these gentle little flowers on it it just screams
picnic dress no emma no yeah anything else no that's right i also got this one it feels so
i don't know mod a-line and then i made a mistake brought the bed sheets home got all excited about
making dresses and realized i should have thrifted the lining material in early day with wendy we
would have never talked about lining but i'm grown we do lining now i went back to the thrift store
i got this off-white king flat sheet for the picnic dress and then i did another growing thing
which was check the materials on this to be at least 50 cotton so that it would be
breathable don't make the mistake of thrifting synthetics to make a cottony picnic dress
because you are going to be hot i'm not going in the mood to draft a design from scratch today so
we'll be using my little kit i'll give you a quick refresher if you've never seen this before it's an
entire catalog of patterns that have been drafted following the golden rule you know like the
thumb is the length of your nose and your wingspan is your vertical height in a previous video we put
it to the test on myself on my assistant julia who's petite on one of our friends
who's a bit more plus size and it actually was very much in the ballpark for all of us
all based on one measurement only when you're making upper half garment all it takes is the
bust and when you're making a lower half garment all it takes is the hips it's crazy i'm aware how
much i sound like an as seen on tv salesperson right now so i will stop here but if you've
seen how much i've used this kit in my videos you already know i love it i have chosen this lovely
design a little sweetheart neckline ruffled sleeves and then this style of skirt is not
as demanding on fabric quantity as if it were tiered because then you would need even more
fabric to achieve all the ruffles so hopefully i have enough fabric and when you flip it over
on the back it has all the corresponding pattern pieces that you're going to draft using this very
piece of paper as like an extrapolation guide let me just get set up here it's been a while
taking your bust measurement you poke your pin through that corresponding measurement on the tape
as well as the cross on every single pattern piece and then you swing the tape around adding a dot
at these corresponding distances like 21.5 centimeters 17 centimeters away add a dot 12
centimeters away add a dot 7 centimeters away add a dot the size of it is determined by the
fact that you put a pin in corresponding to your own size once you connect all the lines you end up
with a pattern piece that corresponds with this miniature this front piece extrapolated to this
back piece extrapolated here a strap extrapolated here and i still have to connect the dots to form
this ruffle piece i used to just guess for ruffles but i can't believe they literally help you draft
the ruffle too down here they just already tell you the measurements because it's just
a big rectangle for the skirt when it comes to cutting the pieces out this little magnetic fella
sticks to your scissors and then you slide the elastic band to the seam allowance distance that
you would like i'm working with one centimeter and so now i just line up the lines that i've
drawn with this black band and i cut a border all the way around there's been many comments over the
last few years over what this little doodad is so i'll put a link in the description if you want to
magnetize your seam allowance game lastly there are some darts to work with
front of the bodice the back of the bodice with a little dart i'm ready to cut out some fabric
it looks like this is a fitted sheet but the elasticity of it is pretty questionable so i'm
kind of excited that i get to give it a new life as a dress i'm going to measure its full size
to see what orientation might work best before i start cutting out the pattern pieces the pattern
seems to go in every direction so i don't think there is necessarily a up or down that's nice on
the topic of bed sheets i'm so excited to give a shout out to birch living thank you for sponsoring
this video back when i was reading to prepare for having a baby there was one book i read that
talked about how to have a happy baby already an ambitious topic but the answer they gave surprised
me and now i i'm a believer the key they argued was to have a well-rested parent or caregiver and
that is the highest contributor to a happy baby the book went on to explain how one might become
a well-rested caregiver but absolutely a good sleep is so important and we have had plenty of
well-rested sleeps thanks to our birch living mattress don't fall asleep now i've mentioned
birch living so many times in the past but if you don't know it's a premium mattress in a box
company that makes mattresses and sleep products that are stylish comfortable and environmentally
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support if you've been keeping up with my shape of home series our bedroom is on the upper floor in a
100 year old house and this is kind of warm right now this is not a highlighter this is this is part
skin care but part like heatwave glow thankfully our mattress is not adding to our warmth issues
it was important to me to choose a birch mattress that was made with organic and natural materials
because unlike synthetic materials the wool in this mattress makes it hypoallergenic it
is both allergen and mildew resistant and today i'm excited a year into owning our birch mattress
i am finally doing the thing i once saw on the sorry girls which is to use a king-sized duvet on
a queen i got the birch living natural down duvet insert and i have their organic cotton duvet cover
we're going to swap the duvet burrito method here we go we are rolling up the entire thing duvet
cover and duvet at the end you flip the duvet cover over the entire thing then unroll and she's
inside this is finished we are done oh my gosh it looks so much better with all that blanket
oozing over the sides i wanted to do this so long ago but it felt wasteful to swap out a perfectly
good queen duvet however as of today marla's awake our new sectional pull out guest bed arrived and
so the queen duvet is going there to give our guest bed the complete birch living treatment
i got a plush organic mattress topper organic mattress pad a waterproof mattress protector
as well and then the sheet set the pillow protectors all so that our guests will sleep
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warranty plus a 100 night sleep trial so they will just come and pick it up and refund it
if you don't love it on top of that each brush mattress comes with two eco rest pillows they're
the ones that dan and i are using they're made from recycled plastic bottles and like i mentioned
the birch living has so many other add-ons for you to choose from we love our birch mattress we think
you will too if you're looking for a new mattress check out birch you can click the link below or
you can go to birchliving.com with wendy and you will get 400 off plus two free eco rest pillows
last night i finished cutting out all the pieces including the lining everything got copied in
the lining except for the straps and the ruffles those only need to be in the floral fabric i have
the darts all pinned in here we're going to finish that off today this is my tried and true technique
which is to have the line where the darts go and then poke the pin through the line on one
side the line on the other side and then back out to the other line which just brings everything in
say with me alignment now i'm just going to sew along these lines
i feel like i just accomplished one of those how many times can you use
line in a paragraph challenges i ran a little bit off track over here you can see the pencil line
and the stitch line don't quite match this is what you want a stitch and marking all in alignment
and there we go a little shaped bodice i also have the darts in the two back pieces as well as the
two back lining pieces and there's the lining bodice i'm going to give all of these a press
when it comes to darts i generally position them so they're pointing away from the center
of the body here she is on the body form looking good it's good to trim these top edges so that
it's totally smooth and now i'm realizing i've gone down the road of the bodice but actually
i think for this project i have to start with the straps because the straps get tucked
in to the top i have these two pairs of fabric that are the straps one of these edges can stay
raw because it's going to get tucked into the strap but the other edge is going to be floating
out there for the world to see so we'll try to make it look cute oh it's the more curved edge
that will be exposed okay good thing i checked and to speed things up i'm gonna bring in the
rolled hem foot this will either be miraculously fast or give me a whole new thing to stress about
the rolled hem foot was more harrowing than i bargained for i think i still need a lot
more practice some rough spots this area i think i need to fix second one way better
but that was a journey i'm gonna fix this first one
yes redemption strap assembly here we go first gathering stitch on the raw edge
one two giving them a little pull lovely i'm gonna pin this between the straps got my ruffle sandwich
time to lock it in with a straight stitch and to close off the other side of the straps
i'm doing this maneuver where i'm rolling the ruffle as tucked in as can be so that i don't
catch it as i seal the other side shut with a straight stitch now to flip it right side out
give this little press to flatten the strap and that will give you this lovely little thing okay
i can work with that the straps are now sandwiched between the lining
and the front i never love this part of making tops because i just have to arbitrarily decide
where the straps are going to go in strap placement the distance between the straps is
pretty impactful on the final appearance generally the farther apart they are the more glamorous it
looks but as with all things if you go too far they're just going to start sliding right off
the shoulders which is no good i actually ended up measuring the width of the straps
on the dress i'm currently wearing and we're just gonna use that as our guide and hope for the best
i really need to get a full-length mirror but i think this is good
i think we're still in business i can't just flip it over like this though i have a few finishing
details i need to do i need to add a couple of snips so the fabric can lie flat one at
the very bottom of the sweetheart and a few more along the curves and i'm going to under stitch
with the back pieces i've also sewn them right sides together shell lining
under stitching i'm gonna put the zipper in now
now back middle opening invisible zipper right sides together here first and the other side
nice i'm trying to figure out how much i can take away okay i think that's as far as i can take the
top so moving on to the skirt do you want to come in i'll leave the door open for you okay
i've cut skirt fabric out of the florals and out of the lining oh i tried to do something
smart which was use the edge of the king sheet as the bottom edge of the skirt hopefully that's
a decision that works out the lining is a bit smaller in circumference than the
floral i think it's gonna be okay because it's really just there to prevent people from like
seeing my legs when i'm backlit like some weird shadow puppet show i think i just gotta sew
them into their complete tube i'm like kind of excited because to me the skirt means we're in
the home stretch but then i'm also damaged enough to know that i can't get too excited
left an opening in the back middle to help me with the zipper yes this layer is significantly
bigger all right i'm really not sure right now if i've gathered way too much fabric into this
dress is there is there such thing as too much i'm damaged from times where i skimped on the ruffles
and it came out so lackluster and i don't want to swing the pendulum the other way and go overkill i
posted about this on instagram and everyone says that there's no such thing as too much gathering
okay i think i need to raise the shoulder straps just a little because the waist is not high enough
i want to bring it in a little bit tighter so it just feels a bit more fitted i'm gonna also
hem the bottom of the dress probably just gonna do a little blind stitch
and this right here folks is where you're so close to finishing one project that you start a new
project which was me realizing i still had enough leftover floral fabric to maybe for the first time
make a little dress for her my baby girl i had just pulled out this brown dress of hers from
the laundry and so i started copying all of its pieces this did mean another round with my nemesis
the narrow rolled hem foot but this time i was victorious just like with my dress i had to gather
up the shoulder ruffles sandwich them into the straps and here's where i was at the next morning
hello you want to come in this is giving me flashbacks to my mom making little dresses for
my dolls when i was a kid i'm going to assemble the top here right side of the front touching
right side of the lining again with the snipping flat areas don't have to sniff curved areas
give them a little room to breathe so tiny how was i once this size like you two how were you
like this inconceivable under stitched pressed crispy moving on i've got the elastic band that's
going to go across the back and the fabric that i'm going to encase the elastic band in attaching
the front to the back i'm going to go right sides flip the lining over lock it in right sides flip
the lining sew it down cute but now i definitely can no longer model this for you on my body
i rolled the hem it looks so good i feel like i really solidified my rolled hem
skills in this one yeah i'm gonna gather the lining this shell right sides together
with this bad boy i took all the raw fabric that was in the waistband and i put it all together
with a blanket stitch so that it won't fray too much now i just have this one little ribbon i made
it's gonna go in the back middle so that these two ties can secure to it and form two little straps
nice thing though about the elastic back and the ties is that it's a little size flexible so
i think she could wear this next summer stay tuned you see this dress mommy made
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