Tie-Dyed Leotard--cheap, fun, and quick!

For a while I designed, sewed, and sold my own leotards. Making leotards is fun, but it can be difficult if you're not an experienced seamstress, and you have to have a serger. At one point I had perfected my own leotard pattern (store bought leotard patterns are horrible) and had graded it into multiple sizes. Then they all went down with the ship during Katrina. The ones I've created since haven't been quite the same.

So just to get in a quick, fun project with no sewing involved, I suggest a tie-dye leotard. You end up with a unique creation, and you haven't committed to expensive fabric or frustrating elastic-sewing.

The cost of this project was very low!

• Tie-dye kit $6 ($10 with 40% off coupon).
• Two leotards on clearance at www.dancewearsolutions.com $7.99 each. Can't beat that. And they're lined! 
• So I've got two custom leotards, basically at $11 each.

Obviously, if you're purchasing a kit, there will be tie-dye instructions included. But they are not expecting you to dye a leotard, so keep the following in mind:

• Use a cotton/lycra leotard. Do NOT use nylon (that's the thin, cheapy packaged kind in  translucent pink from Walmart) or shiny nylon/lycra. (Note: Lycra=spandex) If you can't get a white one, a pale color can also be dyed over. 
• Warning: Cotton/lycra leotards are almost always going to be dance-style leotards, not gymnastics-style. There is a difference. The most important difference is leg opening. See the legs of the leo above? Fairly high cut, not really strong elastic. This is because it's a dance leotard meant to be worn with tights. Gymnasts don't wear tights so they need lower cut, heavy duty elastic--or permission to wear shorts over their leotard. 
• Because of the lycra (spandex) in the fabric, even though it looks and feels cottony, it will repel the dye. Much like stain-resistant microfiber couch fabric, liquid will bead and roll off, even when the leotard is pre-soaked and damp. So you really have to hold the bottle of dye directly on the fabric and patiently let it soak in. A cotton t-shirt will absorb the dye well enough that you can pour and dribble the dye right over it. If you scrunch up the cotton/lycra leotard in order to make a certain pattern (as I did in the leotard pictured), there will be some parts left white. If you're not okay with this, don't tie up the leotard into a very small bundle as you would with a t-shirt; just keep it loose and apply like you're painting a picture. 

Faux embroidery: personalize with a regular sewing machine!

This is one of my favorite tricks. Using a regular old sewing machine, you can personalize anything! Not really anything, not bricks or puppies or vegetables or what have you; I'm focusing on fabric here. Because my girls are close to the same size, I wanted to try something that wasn't a name so they could share it. Lots of their little tees and things have "peace," "love," "BFFs!" and that sort of thing. I chose "happiness" for my little Florence fans.

There's a short way and a long way to do this.

First, the long way.

Use tracing paper to write out your word or name. So nice and neat, just like my third grade cursive handwriting workbook!

Grab your garment or pattern piece--start with something cheap and easy. Don't start with a knit--although once you get the hang of it, you could try a knit, with some serious fusible interfacing stuck to it. I'm using this skirt (which used to be a top, but that's a boring story).

Thread your bobbin with regular old 6-strand embroidery floss.

The main thread will be a regular spool of thread in the same color. The bobbin will look like this:

Then, using colored colored tracing paper and a tracing wheel, on the wrong side, trace your word. 

Then you have this:

Now, very slowly and carefully, sew along the word. Use a short stitch length, and when you get to a corner or tight bend, raise the foot and pivot, then lower the foot. This may take a little practice if you've never done something similar before. You also may need to experiment with the tension setting--it can be a little wonky with two very different threads working together.

Voila! Now use a needle to hide those end threads, and while you're at it, you can correct any mistakes.  See how I missed a stitch in that "a"? I can fix that by hand. 

All those extra buttons from new clothes go in this basket. Don't tell the producers at Hoarders. They would confiscate them all and I wouldn't have the perfect dot for my "i".

And the best part is: you can toss this sucker in the washer and dryer.

Or maybe the best part is, you can easily snip it right out if it's a hand-me-down and you need to switch names.

 Which brings me to the short version. Rather than go through all the tracing, just freehand a name or word on the inside of the garment in pencil. Then stitch it. This one has a backward slant, but it's still cute on a $5 dress.

Now you're free to write stuff all over your clothes, and you don't even have to go buy an expensive embroidery machine!

Flower girls!

When my girls were in my brother's wedding, the bride requested off-white dresses with pink sashes (the bridesmaids were in black). I would have loved to design something from scratch, but I didn't want to find myself stressing for time at the eleventh hour. So I found a pattern I liked--princess seams and cap sleeves for an old-fashioned look--and decided I shouldn't try to make any big changes. I love old photos and fashion plates of Civil War-era children, with their stays and hoop skirts looking like a miniature version of mother. The great thing about designing for kids is that no matter how ridiculous the clothes are, they're going to look cute. 

Because I live out in Donkeyville with no good fabric stores close by, it was difficult to find a nice crisp taffeta fabric. This crepe-back satin was the best I could do with my resources (for this particular project I didn't want to order over the internet because it's just too difficult to judge weight, hand, and color of fabric without touching and seeing it in person). The result was that the dresses didn't have much pouf to them--particularly the size 5, because there was more heavy fabric to weigh it down. Still, they came out lovely. 

To make the design unique without changing the pattern, I used off-white lace ribbon to make a faux lace-up corset panel. This needs to be done before sewing the lining to the dress, so that the end of the lace will  be sewn inside for a clean finish. With 1/4" pink ribbon I formed a lacing pattern and pinned it in place. Then I sewed the lace ribbon down, catching each corner of the pink ribbon. The pink sash was the greatest find of all--no work on my part, I found it at Walmart, of all places. A perfect match, it was only about $5 for a spool of "sash ribbon."

You'll notice a tuck at the top of each sleeve--they ended up being super wide on my narrow girls, and the easiest solution, without big pattern changes, was just to pleat it inward and sew it flat. It made the sleeves a little puffy, but kids can get away with that. 

Voila! Unique flower girl dresses from a stock pattern. 

Later, we used the dresses for family photos.

Never sewed? Start here.

Several of my friends have actually bought sewing machines but have never used them because they don't know where to start and sewing classes are hard to commit to. So here's my advice if you're just getting started. 

Crib bumpers are likely on their way to extinction because of newer safety recommendations. However, these turned out great and are a good example of a way to make decorative pillows if you don't plan to ever use crib bumpers. So pretend the bumpers pictured above are very long pillows.

Pillows are a great project for a beginner. If you just want to practice using a sewing machine you don't even need a pattern. However, there are even patterns for basics like pillows and they come with step-by-step instructions. Even though it seems like a no-brainer, a pattern with instructions (even if it's for making a plain old square pillow) will introduce you to basic rules and techniques and pattern markings.

Pillows are also a good way to experiment with pattern manipulation. If you've never made changes to a store-bought pattern, this is a good place to start. Like making a plain old pillow, these crib bumpers were just long rectangles. I slashed the pattern down the middle, then added a 1/4" seam allowance to each side as I cut the fabric. There's no need for a full 5/8" seam allowance for something like this...as long as you remember the amount you allowed for.

I'm a fan of mixing things up; I prefer things to not be too matchy-matchy. All four bumpers of the set shown above had the fuzzy dotted pink on the bottom and the floral on the top. Both end bumpers had the pink plaid ribbon running across the middle; both side bumpers had the yellow polka dot. All four had turquoise for the back.

Decorative ribbon is an easy embellishment; just pin it in place and sew it on 1/8" from the ribbon edge, using both hands to keep the ribbon flat and to prevent the fabric from stretching under it. As long as it's sewn along every edge and lying flat, it will do great in the washer/dryer. If you want to sew on ribbons with loose ends (like I did for the bumper ties) and the ribbon is polyester, hold the end of the ribbon close to (not in) a flame to melt the edge and prevent fraying. MOST decorative ribbon is polyester and this will work. If your ribbon is cotton, you'll probably just light everything on fire. If you burn your house down it is not my fault.

Disclaimer: As mentioned before, crib bumpers are now not recommended for babies. Three babies later, I've never had one get stuck in the bumpers but I HAVE had all of them get their legs painfully caught between the slats when the bumpers have been gone. All three have had big, fat pillowy bumpers. I think the babies are soothed by the cozy feeling of being surrounded by crib bumpers. But if you are scared of bumpers, make a cute pillow for your rocker and later use it for the toddler bed.

Long story short:

• Get yourself a very basic pillow pattern. Read the directions, because they will include the basic rules (such as, standard seam allowance--the distance you sew from the edge-- is 5/8") and define some terms and pattern markings.
• Find some fabric cute enough that you'll like your finished product but cheap enough that you won't be worried about screwing it up. 
• ALWAYS pre-wash fabric before sewing. Don't go straight from the shopping bag to the sewing machine--it WILL come back to haunt you. It's worth repeating: ALWAYS WASH FABRIC BEFORE SEWING.