a dress and some leggings

I found this dress in my work pile cut out from the summer and decided I would put it together. It's a rather simple design I've done before. I didn't have any instructions with it so I just made it up as I went along and decided to do a seam finish on the sides I haven't done in ages which is the flat felled seam. Mostly this is just used for jeans and is really not needed on light breezy cotton dress. A regular seam and serge or even french seam would have worked fine. Mostly I just love the fabric which is so light and full of sweet illustrations. I think I'll wrap this up for S for her birthday which is at least a little closer to Spring.



And, these leggings..... well, I didn't get these quite right. I mean they are sewn fine and I love the jersey but, they are too snug for my girl which is okay because I know some small ones who could get some use out of these.

Edited to add how I make the leggings:

I start with a pair of leggings that we currently own. With these I actually didn't have enough material which is why they don't fit Scarlet.

I use organic cotton jersey for leggings. This one I got from Superbuzzy. I've also purchased from Alabama Chanin but, I'm sure you can get nice jersey at your local fabric shop as well.

The age of your child will determine how much fabric you need. I think I used 3/4 of a yard for the ones I've made her and she wears a 3T.

Notes:
If you don't have a serger use a small zig-zag stitch on your machine.
Make sure you used the right needle -one for stretch fabrics.
Don't worry if you haven't used jersey. It's not that hard.

1) Fold the leggings in half place the straight edge on the fold and trace around leaving room for seam allowance.
1" at top and half inch around the bottom and side. Do this again. You now have two identical pieces.

2)With right sides together sew up the leg seams leaving the waist to crotch (gosh I hate that word) open. If you have a serger you can go ahead and serge this too.

3) Turn one leg right side out and place in the other leg so everything lines up and sew along the curve. So the right sides are together inside. Take the leg out and you will see they are almost done.

4) You now need to hem the bottoms and make a casing for the top. If you have a serger you can serge along the bottom of the pant legs and the top of the pant before you do the hem. You should use elastic that is 1/2"- 3/4" for the casing.

A casing is rather simple to make and you will not need to hem twice if you serge at the top. Make sure to leave room for your elastic and then sew in shut with a little ribbon or tag so you can tell which side is the back.

If you try this and it works out let me know. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I will try to help you in the comments section.

Thanks!