drop that waist and wear a tunic!

Time for a woman's tutorial!!! (Although to be honest this will work just as well with the Sisboom Leighanna :) )

So get out your Devon pattern and let's get started!

First measure yourself for how long you want your tunic to be AND where you want the casing line. 

I marked a outtie triangle for where the casing line would be so when I cut I would just know for front and back. No guessing and measuring after cutting.

Once cut, draw a nice straight line from one triangle outtie to the other.

Now I measured my elastic to be the same as my waist where I wanted the cinching to be. 

tack the elastic down at both triangle outties and then stretch and pin in the middle.

You will now sew and stretch the elastic while you sew. 

Then complete your dress! I lowered the front slit a bit and skipped the ties. 

Easy peasy and cute! Time to put on your tunic and tights and grab your pumpkin spice treat!

Does it work in knit? A little guide.

Let's talk about making woven patterns with knit fabrics! It is a question I see a lot of. So here are a few basics! 

When deciding on a pattern to make with knits you are going to need to decide whether to downsize or if it will work AS IS. 

Patterns like the Sisboom Devon/Leighanna and the Meghan and Molly and Scientific seamstress Portrait Peasant work as is.  They are all peasants and so you don;t have to adjust. The fit of the main will be a bit more flowy than woven.

 but because the elastic in the neckline is what gives a peasant the stay on and shape nothing needs to change. As . you will want to be certain the most stretch direction is across the body though. if you have the stretch go up and down you will get a very wonky hemline.

The marlo is another option where you can do AS IS - but if you want to lengthen the ruffle or size down a bit you can for a closer fit 

Here is Leah modelling her knit Marlo with lengthened ruffle, which means the kids version, Cathy would work as well in knit. 

Some patterns work FAB in knit as the main part. but because of the design still need the stability of some woven and so if you keep the collar/ top bands in woven you can do the rest in woven! 

An example of this would be the Sisboom Shana which you also saw on the blog back in january

Which means the kids version, Emily would work as well.

Another pattern that follows this principle would be the Sisboom Dana and Maddie. and the Sisboom Vanessa and Bettyann as well as the Scientific Seamstress Bebop 

The arrows point to the pieces you can cut out in knits. just leave the armbands,straps,top bands woven. These patterns NEED the stability of woven in those places to hold shap and stay on!

The Easy fits also work GREAT in knit and so do the Sisboom Judy/Katies. For the Judy and Katie's use woven for the waistband facing.

and Tortola and Tobago are great in knit as long as you use woven facing, again it needs the stability to hold shape. You do NOT need to size down or cut on the bias to do the tanks in knit.

pic from AliCat&co - Thanks Brianne!

And remember that this knowledge is transferrable. So have a look at the pattern and how it is constructed to decide whether to proceed with making it knit or not. 

and as always check out our super amazing facebook group! 

and if you like SALES check out the September newsletter - and be sure to subscribe so you don;t miss out on any amazing deals and challenges in the future! 

Making the Leighanna a Drop Waist Dress

You know how some days you get an idea seeeeewwwwww awesome it just needs to happen - that was this outfit for Cheeks! 

Grab your Sisboom Leighanna pattern and sewalong for making it a drop waist skirt! 

Yep, THAT easy! and under 2yards so perfect for the August sewalong challenge!!

The Hug Life graphic is heat transfer vinyl ironed on (source prefers to remain unnamed). and the thug princess kitty is custom by StitchART free motion applique

Skirt fabric is Sisboom's Caravalle line and top fabric is from Fabricland, Canada.

August is here which means so is a fun new sewing challenge!

We are excited about this challenge! If your stash is anything like mine is then you have a boatload of little 1yd and 1/2yd pieces left from the larger cuts ... and this is the month to use them!

READ THE NEWSLETTER for some great ideas and links to free patterns and projects!

This month's blog posts will focus on ideas to hopefully inspire you to use up your under 2yd cuts and even scraps! Let's have a fun month making the most of our fabric stashes (so we have an excuse to buy more when September starts!!!) 

To enter your sews into the monthly challenge album join us in the LAB group on facebook!

ok. now that the odds and ends are sorted, who wants to see my first 1yd project?? 

The Sisboom Leighanna in size 5/6 !

The Leighanna is a fast sew. I like to call it a 1for1. 1yd of fabric used in 1hr of time! and it is sooooo perfect for back to school! 

When I sew the Leighanna up I always give the bow center a stitch down the middle so it cannot come untied on the kids! No one needs shirt strings in their soup at school lunch!

What will be your first sew for the challenge? Let's all try and sew one thing a week (at least!)! 

The free motion applique used up the tiny bits of fabric (the giraffe pattern isn't out quite yet for the FMA) 

Flutters on a Peasant! a quick tutorial!

Welcome to yet another Sisboom pattern hack! If you want to see more check out our pinboards! We have them for all the patterns and hacks always get pinned :) 

Grab your Leighanna peasant pattern and let's get started!

To make flutter sleeves you take the sleeve pattern so you know the length to cut your flutter rectangles.  I just estimated on the width. enough for the casing and the hem and about 1.5 inches in between. 

Next sew the side seams together for the main dress

Grab some bias binding. single fold works best. and then pin around both arm holes and sew in that crease as sen in the second photo down here:

Now you will fold the bias down and sew to enclose that edge.

Sew the hems on your flutters and zig zag or serge the short ends of the flutters and then fold downthe end and pin onto the sleeve hole. line up the tops with the main dress and sew along the bias binding line. (yes, this is the easy way... you could also put on and fold into the bias binding, but this was some late night sewing and for a kids item it is good for play even if not fancy inside....)

Then you just finish your top edge with the casing as per the pattern skipping the slit. and hem the bottom.

All done and plain adorable! I love the narrowness of this peasant - perfect for adding on some fun like free motion applique or embroidery :)

Side-bow Leighanna (Tutorial)

This is so simple I don't even know if this qualifies as a tutorial.... but here it is.

For a fun change up to the Leighanna pattern move the center slit off to the side! I shortened it by an inch when I did this as well, and then I did faux drawstring and used ribbon as the tie! 

I just LOVE this top! 

Fabric is from the Sisboom Lucky Girl line.

Converting a Simple Peasant into a Tiered Confection

Today we have a great tutorial for you from the creative and brilliant minds of Jennifer Paganelli and Carla, the Scientific Seamstress!

(the Leighanna dress/top pattern)

Instead of buying a whole new pattern for the tiered peasant dress look you can simply take your Leighanna pieces and make a few simple changes to the bodice and sleeves and do a little (simple) math for the tiers and have a completely different look!

Now to know what your 'desired finished length' is look at page 6 of the Leighanna pattern at the leg chart. 

For the tiers I cut even my first tier into half after I cut it out so I had a front and back tier piece, to make the construction easier. The tutorial will assume you did your tiers this way. So make sure you have 2 tier pieces for each tier layer. Also for my third tier I did mine just a little shorter than the math suggested to do since I didn't want to sew a 3 inch strip to each one, but the tiers were still longer than the previous so it all works.

I want to share my little trick here for keeping the tiers straight and not getting mixed up 1. I mark the letter of the first name for who's dress the tier is for (I made a dress for both girls) 2. I mark the tier number.

The basic assembly for this tiered dress is pretty much the same as the Leighanna so I'll be referring you back to the pattern a bit for this tutorial and showing you the differences in this post to get the tiered look. I will also be showing you two options, with ribbon and without. 

The oldest has the ribbon version and the youngest no ribbon.

To start you will do page 10- 11 (neckline opening) I did the opening and tie on the oldest's dress and I skipped it on the babes, I figured with her being at teething age it would just be another thing to chew on.

Now for the sleeves you have adjusted them with the curve and this makes the normal hemming a bit tricky - especially for double folding and making a casing. 

So what you need to do is finish the edges and fold over and iron. I serged my ends to finish them but you can zig zag or fancy stitch them to finish as well.

To make the casing you will need to get your bias tape out (not the narrow stuff) and pin it along the edge, hiding your finished edge. You will likely need many pins to keep it in place.

Sew along the bottom edge of the casing and the top edge - as close to the bias tape edge as you can get so you have room to get your safety pin and elastic through.

Now you will thread your elastic through. You will need a couple extra inches more than the pattern says since these sleeves will be around the upper arm. I suggest threading it through and then deciding how tight you want it before cutting the elastic. Once you have decided on your length, pin it in there and stitch it down (closing up the casing - be sure to catch your elastic in that stitching!) 

Now sew the sleeves to the bodice as indicated on page 15 and also do the neckline casing but do not thread elastic through yet. (you can, but I just find it easier to leave that until the end)

Now you are ready to gather the tiers. I kept mine laid out so as to help avoid confusion. Sew 2 parallel gathering lines along the top edge of each tier piece. 

Now I want to mention that you should 100% and absolutely gather your tiers from the bottom up! Trust me, it will save you plenty of time! Gather tier 3 front and back to the length of un-gathered tier 2 front and backs, and then gather tier 2 to the un-gathered length of tier 1 (front and back), and then gather tier 1 to the length of the bodice (front and back). 

Now you will sew the tiers together, again starting at the bottom and sewing up. You should finish the edges by way of serging or zig-zag stitching.

No Ribbon Version:

If you are doing the no ribbon version just finish off the dress now according to the pattern on page 17 and 18, be careful to line up your seams! (and please don't forget to do the neckline and hem - tip at the end of the post for threading the neckline elastic)

and then your un-ribboned dress is done! yay! 

Ribbon Version:

If you are doing the ribboned version you will want to sew up just one side seam from end to end. Leave that other side open for now! 

Iron your tier seams upwards, if you are like me, you tend to try and skip using the iron wherever possible... I just want to let you know that you will regret skipping the ironing on this step.

Now get our your trusty glue stick and give a good layer along the edge of the tier (along the bottom of the bodice is where I began, but the ribbon goes where you did not gather. and when you sew the ribbon on it should catch the seams that you pressed upwards) starting at one side of your open seam and going to the other, glue and press the ribbon down.

Here you can see the ribbon glued on. If you give it a minute to dry you probably won't need to pin before you sew the ribbon on.

I used narrow ribbon so I just gave one line down the center. If using a wider ribbon you may want to sew along the top and bottom edge. 

Once you have ribbon sewed onto all of your tiers, match up the side seam carefully so the tiers/ribbon matches and  then sew and finish according to page 17/18. Finish your bottom hem and neckline.  

and that is the ribboned version complete!

Neckline casing tip:

When threading the elastic in a neckline that has the notched facing I find the pin often wants to get lost in the neckline facing. This frustrates me greatly trying to get the safety pin out of the hole without it getting lost in there behind the casing ...So, I thought I would share with you my way of saving my sanity.  

I put a pen or pencil end into the casing hole past the neckline facing and then push it out with the safety pin, the pin never gets lost into the facing this way, just neatly threads through!

Ta-da! I am now done sewing Christmas dresses for the girls! YAY! will you be using one of our patterns for making your Christmas outfit/s?

Also does anyone else love how well the Sisboom fabric goes together from all the lines? I used Girls World (the green) and Circa (the stripe)!

ps. Please join us on facebook in the lab group! Also you can sign up to get our posts delivered to your inbox via the box on the upper left of the blog :)