Thursday, August 6, 2009

in which we made bias tape for the first time

Here is a dress I just finished making from a man's dress shirt. I didn't take a before picture of the shirt, but it looked similar to this.
I found a tutorial online and went to the thrift store and bought up a bunch of shirts. This was my first attempt. I changed up a few things to suit my sewing style. And I may put the finished dress in the embroidery machine and put a big hot pink monogram on the front, but we'll see. So many possibilities! It's a bit big for her now, but that won't stop me from letting her wear it. Since she is toilet training, dresses are a helpful clothing item to make going potty much easier.
The most exciting thing for me was the fact that I actually made bias tape to line the insides of the armholes. I don't know why it seemed like such a daunting task, but truly it is easy breezy.



Bias tape: For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, if you take a non-stretchy fabric, such as a cotton dress shirt and pull with the length of the fabric, it doesn't stretch, same thing with the crossgrain, but if you pull diagonally between lengthwise and crossgrain, a non-stretchy fabric WILL stretch. Henceforth you cut on the diagonal (or bias) and can make bias tape. Clear as mud, right?

2 comments:

Sandy said...

You are so amazingly talented.

Catherine B. said...

That is ridiculously precious!!!