Brewing in the back of my mind has been this pink and orange circle dress. I've had the fabric for months, it's just been such a busy couple of months I was almost too scared to start on it.
I certainly shouldn't have been scared. This thing took 2 hours to make from start to finish. Clean studio to clean studio, I might add. I didn't test anything out before I started sewing, and I ended up paying for it a little bit with the waistline, but overall everything worked like a dream.
I included a high-low circle hemline here because I had enough requests for a tutorial, I thought I would do it again so I could better explain it. It's really easy. So easy that I've made a printable pattern. Not printable from home, (it takes forever to format to print on 8.5x11 paper) but you can easily take the file to your local copy shop and they can print it out on their gigantic plotter for something like 15¢-50¢ per square foot. Or you can draft your own using the instructions after the jump.
The two colors are very similar in content and weight, the orange being a bit heavier. I wanted to have the pink on the bottom when I first conceptualized this dress, but I didn't have enough fabric for it. You'll need at least a yard and a half if you want it to come close to hitting at the knee. I'm a knee length gal, so more yardage was required.
I drafted my own skirt and used the Renfrew tee as a base for the bodice. I took in the Renfrew tee about 3/8 inch at the fold line, none at the shoulders or arm pits then just about 3/8 inch at the waist line. I wanted the top to be form-fitted so I can wear the dress sans belt.
I made the mistake of cutting the bodice too short, so I ended up adding a waistband for the needed length. It worked out just fine, and looks like it's supposed to be there in a way. Next time my dress won't have one. And I will be making another one of these. I sort of wish I had made this skirt last year or the year before in the height of the orange/pink craze, but I still love it regardless of what's trending.
The jersey is crazy comfortable, it feels like I'm wearing lounge clothes. I can't wait to make another one. Next one will be out of a print, I think. Now I need to find the right print.
Outfit details:
- earrings: Brazil
- necklace: Annily Green
- skirt: handmade
- belt: hand-me-down from grandma
- leather bracelets: handmade
- bangle: c/o Apricot Lane
- shoes: thrifted
Click to read more for the full how to make this skirt!
Supplies:
- 2 yards jersey with 40-60% stretch, preferably 4-way
- 1 inch elastic cut to waist measurement
- sewing machine and matching thread
- pencil
- ruler
- large roll of paper
Take your measurements and write them down. Or if you want a 22 inch skirt with a 26 inch scoop in the back, just click the free pattern at the end of the post. It's graded by waist measurement, every 2 inches from 24-36 inches.
Find your waist radius by using the first equation in the image above. Write down the waist radius.
Subtract your back measurement from the front and find the difference. With the 22" front and the 26" back, the difference was 4 inches.
Divide the difference by two, that's the magic middle, or 2 inches.
Add the magic middle, 2 inches, to the front measurement, 22 inches, and your waist radius, 3.75 inches and you get your skirt radius. Write down the skirt radius.
With a ruler and pencil, draw out your skirt radius. Find the center line of your skirt radius and measure to the left that magic middle number, 2 inches. Draw out your waist radius. The shorter side is the front and the longer side is the back. See the above diagram for grainline and fold. Cut one piece out.
Sew elastic right sides together and pin to the circle skirt. Zig zag stitch the two pieces. Since you're working with a jersey, there's no need to finish your hemline.
If you want a more polished hemline, get some
knit hem tape and iron your hem before stitching it. This will make stitching a curved hem much easier. A straight stitch is nice here, since you don't need the seam to stretch. Iron. Wear.
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This printable is subject to melissaesplin.com’s terms of use. This printable is free for personal use only.
I'm just in love with Megan Nielsen's crescent top, but I wanted something a little simpler and with sleeves. So I mashed up her pattern and my scoop top pattern and this is what I got. I used a rayon jersey for the top and a rayon challis on bottom.
I had just enough of the floral challis left over from the banksia top I made over a year ago I didn't want to throw it out, but I didn't have enough to make another top. What do you do with awkwardly large fabric scraps? Save? Toss? Recycle? Donate? I usually recycle, but I loved the print and drape so much I saved it. I'm so glad I did!
I don't know why the left tugs in the photo, but it doesn't appear to do that in real life. Or maybe I just don't notice it.
The top was easy enough to construct, the hardest part being the hemming and trying to make that look nice. I did all right. I'm glad I wasn't hemming a curved jersey. The challis was hard enough.
With 20+ of us women bombarding the LA fabric district I want to look dressed up, feel comfortable and be ready for anything. Outfit Details:
As I've mentioned a few times, I'm hitting up the streets of LA through this weekend to stock up on fabric, notions and anything else that strikes my fancy. I'm so excited to be spending time with some wonderful women and to meet and greet lots of great people behind brands I love.
Follow along with all of my finds on Instagram and Seesaw. We will all be using the hashtag #fabricweekend2013.
A few companies are going out of their way to make our trip to LA exciting, I'd like to give each of them a shout out below. 
Even though I'm sure to find unique fashion fabric in the warehouses of the fabric district, Jo-Ann always seems to surprise me with their knit prints.
I've never been to Mood before - they were closed when I went to NYC almost 3 years ago. I'm excited to finally step foot in one of their stores and go a little Project Runway crazy!
Michael Levine is totally new to me. They sell fabric by the POUND (squeal!) in parts of their bricks and mortar store and they also have an online store with crazy awesome fashion fabrics.
And oh Ruche, I'm so excited to hang at your headquarters for a visit!
This is a slightly different style than I normally use, I made really thick downstrokes. So thick that I doubled back after I penned each word.
The cobalt blue is classic in my opinion. I really hope the new parents are as excited about how this turned out as I am.
It's great, but I want to channel it somewhere that I can close the doors and ignore it. I also wanted the space (and flooring) to be utterly indestructible to her glues and glitters. She thinks my studio is so cool, I wanted to give her one of her own.
The downstairs toy room was out (too much soft carpet down there). My studio was definitely out!
We have this utility closet that we don't really use that efficiently upstairs just next to my studio. It has washer and dryer hookups, but we have a laundry room downstairs instead. We had a few random boxes and things (above) that could be easily organized elsewhere, so I made this space Penelope's.
It's the perfect size for her and the tile floors allow for easy clean up. As far as the cost and logistics of making this space hers, here was the breakdown:
The top shelf is still a dedicated space for the drill, light bulbs batteries and misc cleaning supplies. I'm thinking the above space needs an overhaul as well.
With the open containers, Penelope can move them and clean up easily. And she's pretty good about keeping things clean. So far.
I finally found a use for those tins I bought on impulse by way back. This one holds chalk, the other holds her glitter pens.
My mother-in-law sent Penelope a bunch of sweet supplies for her birthday like floral fabric tape, pebble crayons, twig pencils and loads of paper. What a nice grandma. Now she can use these in her own way and not worry about me nagging to clean up.
The metal cabinet is perfect for displaying her favorite pieces before storing or framing them.
It's really a great space for her. She can do whatever she wants in that space and I can close the doors at the end of the day and ignore it all!
Did you have a creative space just for you growing up? Will you or have you done this for your own kids?
I didn't want to stress the bottom hem of the dress a whole lot with my movement, so I made sure the bottom was extra roomy. I believe the final sewn circumference of the bottom is somewhere around 60".
I made this right before a wedding reception two weeks ago. When I say right before, Chris found me in my underwear putting the finishing touches on the dress when he came into the sewing room to tell me we needed to go. I worked like a maniac getting this done in under 2 hours.
It's just like sewing a tee; but a really, really long one. The hem of the dress took me the longest amount of time, and I'll still have to fix it as it rolls up even after I press it.
I thought I'd try to be cool and tie a knot at the bottom of my skirt for some pictures. I like the picture it took, but it does not translate well to moving around. It feels like I have a massive dangling growth hitting my knee all the time. I wonder if fashion bloggers actually have their skirts like this all day or if it's just a styling thing for pictures. I'm inclined to think the latter.
I forgot to take any pictures of the side seams! I matched up the pattern perfectly on both sides. You get a subtle v where all of the black stripes match up. Probably my proudest moment.
The neckline bunches here because of my forward sloping shoulders in the picture. Normally it all lays flat.
This idea for a bubble skirt came to me as I was wondering what to do with the remaining yardage from my 
Penelope reacted as she normally does with complete and utter elation. But when I asked for a photo or two, she gave me the stink eye. Gummy worms did the trick for this session.
I would suspect this would be the perfect kind of tutorial for a sheer or semi-sheer lightweight material. The knit drapes and flounces nicely here.
Outfit details:
Cut your elastic the length of your waist.
Cut the yardage your waist times two (or more if you have more yardage) by the desired length times two plus 1 1/4 inches for your seam allowance.
Fold your yardage in half, meeting right sides together. Sew a straight line along the length of your skirt.
Bring the bottom edge up to the top (making a little doughnut with all the raw edges together). Make sure wrong sides are facing together. Right sides are facing out.
Baste stitch 5/8 inch from the top (raw edges) of your skirt. For best gathering results, do two rows of baste stitches. Gather the skirt just larger than the waist.
Sew right sides of your waistband together. Use a short stitch length here and be sure to back tack and the beginning and end of your stitch.
Measure out the quarters (front back and sides) of the skirt and elastic. Pin those points together. You'll have some gaping between those pin lines, and that's okay. The elastic should be smaller than the skirt here.
Sew a straight line, stretching as you go to line up the skirt and the elastic together.
Open up the elastic, press the skirt and wear!
My mom gave me this lovely lemon basil plant like she was reading my mind. I've already harvested quite a bit from it and discovered my favorite of combinations. Lemon basil, strawberries and fresh cream. OH MY WORD. The lemon basil enhances the flavor of the strawberry 10 fold. It's the funniest thing.
I finely chopped basil and strawberries on French toast on Saturday and it was enjoyed by all. Even Penelope loved the leaves. So there you have it, the secret is out. Find yourself a lemon basil plant. Now.
I'm obsessed with those cheap jeggings, btw. Perfect for a baby bump. It's no announcement, beyond the fact that I'm getting baby hungry.
I already had a pattern drafted up from a 
It's a light-weight jersey that I know I'll be wearing the heck out of this summer.
My friend Kristin just made a similar shirt and posted her 
Outfit details:
I made the stamp in a mono-line so it would coordinate better with my various styles of addressing. Chris says that it's girly, but it's not nearly as girly as most of my lettering styles.
I wish I could show you the whole address, the numbers and letters do fun things together with little flourished details. You'll just have to give me an excuse to send you something in the mail if you really want to see the whole thing.
I write to 4 pen pals these days. It's so much fun to get fun mail each week and to get to know someone in a neighboring state or half way around the world. I love writing pen pals!
Saturday I had fish that needed to be cooked, so I fired up the grill and made probably the best salmon I've had in ages, if not ever. It was quick and easy. I suspect you could make the same kind of salmon in your oven, just bake at 450F.
This sort of satisfied her desire for a dog, but not really. We've had her for about 6 months (a record for a family goldfish?). We bought her as part of some cheap kit from the grocery store. And that kit came with some really ugly rocks and foliage. It was really disappointing that I couldn't find anything that had more of a modern vibe to it.
Remembering that my sister-in-law had given me some white plastic sheeting (used for Industrial Design projects). I cut some foliage for Goldie.
I used the previous base from the kit to keep the plant upright. This way more tolerable than hot pink and muddy green fake foliage.
I tested out her cascade skirt pattern months ago, and I've been so anxious to share it with you. Now that her collection is released, I want to show it off!! I made it out of a purple heather knit (this will be the pantone of the year next year, I'm convinced), and I LOVE the drape, texture and fit.
I was a little hesitant to try a wrap skirt pattern, but I loved the technical drawing so much I couldn't resist.
See, one of the first skirts I ever made was a wrap floral skirt, with the help of my mom. I liked it and hated it. Any time a gust of wind came, there my panties were to say hello. And I live in a fairly windy spot, on top of a mountain. I didn't want to go to the trouble of making an awesome skirt that I could only wear on "special" (aka non-windy) occasions. But I did it anyway.
I'm glad I used a soft jersey here, the jersey tends to stick to itself to conceal not-cute mom undies.
I totes feel like a salsa dancer or something in this skirt.
I wore just about this exact outfit at Alt Summit earlier this year (minus the shoes and plus a blazer). I felt so fancy and comfortable at the same time.
Outfit details:
Kim wanted her daughter's name scribed on her upper shoulder and I think that's sweet. Our children are already metaphorically tattooed onto our hearts forever anyway.
In church on Sunday we talked about relationships with our children and how they learn so much by our example alone.
I often wonder what kind of example I'm setting for my kids. What kinds of things will she learn from my example? I've been stewing over it a lot lately, and I'm afraid of all the things I haven't taught her. There are so many. I'm an incredibly flawed person, but I know that Chris and Penelope's grandparents will pick up the slack where I fall short.
I'll be going to 
We have this deal that she'll get a dog when she's 12 years old. And every day she looks at me, stretches tall and says, "I'm bigger now. Can I have a doggy?"
We have these floor mats. She insisted on building a fort out of those mats for her new dog. You wouldn't believe how hard she cried when Felix pushed it apart.
We got these mats in California for free from a neighbor. I recovered only three of them and lost interest/energy. I didn't even recover them so the covers could be washed. So I'm scheming on recovering them. I think I'm more patient and better at sewing now. I just need to find the right print/fabric that will go with our house.
Which reminds me . . . I'm heading to LA at the end of the month! I'm going with my friend Mim and a bunch of other sewing bloggers to hit up the fabric district. I can't wait! I hope to find some great yardage for these mats there.
Do you have half-finished projects lying around your house that have aged so poorly you have to just start over again? This is just one of many around my house.
Next Sunday is Mother's Day. Do you have something planned for the mama/woman in your life? You should start scheming now.
We don't really celebrate holidays a ton, but Chris knows I require breakfast in bed and a long love letter for Mother's Day. Flowers would be nice too, especially since I recently figured out it was a deer (or five?) that ate all of our tulips. Poor Penelope got an ear full from me about not cutting down flowers before I figured that one out. Mom of the year award definitely not going my way.
I'm thrilled to bits that my mom will be visiting over Mother's day. I miss having my parents close by (they've lived in Charlotte for the last 4 years). My mom knows so much about being a good mom, maintaining a house and planting an amazing garden.
My favorite memories of childhood include seeing those first fruits of the season. Particularly going out and picking the giant raspberries (the size of my thumb!) and eating them right off the bush. For lunch we would eat tomatoes, cottage cheese with pepper on top. Mmm. Mmm.
My mom is the reason for my inner foodie. She knows how to cook! She taught me everything I know. And I know I can call her up while I'm in the middle of the grocery store with howling kids in tow and she'll advise me on the right cut of meat to buy. Or she'll find the recipe I forgot to look up before planning my shopping trip.
She's the best.
I lucked out with my mother-in-law, too. She can master anything she wants. She's a fabulous organist, pianist, classical guitarist and classical basist. She can knit the most amazing socks (I'm a picky sock person) and most recently she's made the most darling quilts for Penelope and Felix. She lives in Phoenix unfortunately, so I don't get to see her as often as I would like. She is an amazing mom. How lucky am I to have two amazing mothers in my life?
I scored this fabric at a swap last month, planning on sewing it into a comfy cardigan. A dolman long-sleeve top it is! It's ironic that as soon as I finished sewing this we had several days of warm weather. Of course we did.
We had a nice cold spell yesterday and today, so I've put it to good use. I drafted a pattern loosely based off a dolman-sleeved top I found at Target over Christmas break. That shirt gets worn a ton, but I did want a slightly longer hemline and a narrower neckline. Making those adjustments were pretty easy.
I added perpendicular detailing at the collar and cuff (inspired by my 
Last night I hosted a sewing night with the girls from church. We talked about sewing and I helped them make aprons. One of the girls asked if I bought my top at Nordstrom. That certainly made my night. It's so satisfying when my handmade creations fool people into thinking they've been professionally made.
That certainly 
Outfit details:
Lots of cuddles and tickles are in order for today.
I wanted to share a logo I designed for Krysta of 
Here's a little peek into the design process. The letters s and f are among my favorite to experiment with. E is too. Speaking of E, I'm working on return address stamps for my family. It's about time, we've lived in our house for nearly a year now!