Project Eliza: family outfits

Now that I had Eliza's Dress (see previous post), I had to figure out what the rest of us were going to wear!

So I used a pattern I had for a simple pleated skirt for me. Full disclosure: this pattern was clearly made for someone without a butt. I cut it 2 sizes bigger then I wear, but it still came up so high in the back, I had to make alterations.

I made my skirt in the same manner as Eliza's dress. I cut out the pieces and followed the directions for sewing. It was basically 4 pieces, pleated and sewn. I added some of the taffeta from Eliza's dress to the bottom and here it is...

I bypassed the zipper for an elastic panel in the back just to make sure would cover my butt well enough. The problem with the zipper and waistband was that it made it sit very high up my lower back. With the elastic I was able to wear it lower, thus covering everything.

I wasn't too worried about lining up the plaids, since it is a pleated skirt, it would just look like any other pleat. Plus, its just for pictures, so who cares?!

I had a nice black knit top I was planning on pairing this with, so for now, my outfit is done!

Moving on to my son...

He already had black pants, and a white button down shirt, so my next stop was to find him a tie. I went to my local thrift store and found a boy's clip on tie for $.99. I took it apart, and traced the shape onto my fabric. I cut it out and hot glued it to the "clip" part of the clip on tie. Again, its just for pictures, so it doesn't have to hold up well.

While at the thrift store, I also found a black vest. It was a little "linty" so I took a lint roll and cleaned it up. So Riely's outfit was done, for under $3!

Now, I was running out of fabric and I still needed something for my husband. We borrowed a plain black sweater from a friend and I didn't really want a tie for him. So I decided to make a "collar" to pop out of the top of the sweater.

So I took one of his shirts, and laid it on top of the fabric. I traced the shape of the collar, with a little extra for a seam allowance.

Once I had the shape, I cut out some interfacing to put in between to make it stiff and sewed it. I left some of the raw edge below to pin it to his t-shirt.

Here are the looks hanging up (minus my husband's since I hadn't finished when I took the picture).

Total cost: $26
Total time: Eliza's dress=3 hours, My skirt=1 hour, Riely's Tie and Rod's collar=1 hour (total 5 hours)

And here are my little angels....

And the family picture....

Enjoy!

So the holidays are coming fast. And now that I have my son and my daughter I have all these visions of cute Christmas card pictures in matching outfits.

Well, those cute matching outfits are not only hard to come by, but way expensive!

So here is the inspiration dress: $38 dollars at Carters. The problem is, my son is a 4T and there was nothing in the same pattern to match for him.

So there is this one at Gymboree, not as cute and over $50. And then I guess I could by this shirt for Riely, for $30, or even a scarf for $17.

No, no, no!! No way am I spending that kind of money. And then what would my husband and I wear???

So I went down to my local Hancock Fabrics and picked out a cute red and black plaid fabric. I got 3 yards, 2 zippers, and 2 patterns (during the .99 cent pattern sale). I also got a remnant piece of black lining, 1 yard of black 1 inch ribbon and 1 yard of black sparkly taffeta.

Your first step is to spread out and cut our your pattern pieces. Now, if you have never worked with patterns before, here is a little advice. First, cut out all the pieces first (regardless of if you will need them all). Then using the guide in the directions, determine what pieces you will need. Most (if not all) patterns come with variations, so you will not need all the pieces for the design you want.

Once you know what pieces you need, pin them to the fabric. Look at the pattern pieces, they will tell you if you need to cut 1 of fabric, 1 of lining, or 2 of fabric or 1 on the fold, etc.

Also, some will note (with an arrow) which way the grain of the fabric should be going. In the photo below, you will see that piece 7 had to be cut that way to align with the grain (although you can't really see the arrow in the picture).

Cut out the pieces, making sure to note any notches or marks for later.

Next cut out our pieces of lining.

For this dress, I wanted to add a layer of the taffeta between the lining and the fabric, so I cut that out of the skirt pieces as well.

Now you just follow the sewing instructions for the pattern. First I sewed the ties, then sewed them into the bodice.

Next I sewed the ribbon on.

Then sewed the bodice front to bodice back.

Then the sleeves.

For the skirt, I sandwiched the taffeta between the fabric and the lining and basted them together.

This particular pattern said to "gather" the material at the waist. I decided instead to do pleats. I feel like with the weight of this fabric it would be too difficult to gather. Plus I like the way pleats look better.

So, I pleated it all the way around, then basted the pleats in place.

Then I sewed the "skirt" to the bodice.

Now it was time for the zipper! Many people get nervous about the zipper, so lets take it one step at a time. Look at the photo above. Start by opening the zipper and sewing the right side of the zipper to the right side of the back of the dress. (when I say right I mean the "front" of the fabric, not the right vs left).

Sew that using a zipper foot. Then flip it to the back so that it looks like the photo below. This will "hide" your zipper.

Baste along the edge of the zipper.

Now repeat on the other side, and zip it up. You are done!

Now this patterns showed how to add flowers to the dress. Start with a circle, and fold it into quarters as shown below. Then baste along the outer edge.