It’s day 2 of the Q4 Finish A Long and I’ve already tied with the number of finishes I had last quarter. ROFLMAO!!! While I did finish numerous things in Q3, I only finished 1 that was on my Q3 list. Hopefully I’ll finish most, if not all, of the things on my Q4 list since they are mostly either Christmas presents, show entries, or for my small business. Fingers crossed!
Here’s my first Q4 finish, a winter dress for my little girl.
I got this like new tunic for her from the thrift store, however, it was too tight around her tummy and butt. So I turned it into a dress. First thing I did was to determine where the empire waist needed to go, added an inch, and cut the bottom part of the tunic off.
Since the fabric is literally like new, I didn’t want to just toss out the bottom part. So, before I continued with her dress, I dealt with the scrap. From what was otherwise trash, I got 4 pretty buttons, a few scraps (between 0.75″sq and 2.5″sq), a few strips for an improv quilt I have in mind, and 52 – 2.5″ squares! I’m thinking those 2.5″ squares will make a cute mini paired with some low volume scraps and either some Heather Ross or Tula Pink for focal. Not sure what, it’s just a fuzzy thought for now.
I purchased numerous 1 yard cuts of cute print flannel when it was on sale for approximately $2 a yard. My little’s widest part of herself is 32″ around so the typical WOF is 42-44″ that’s enough to go around her with some wiggle room. I then cut the length down. To get that length, I measure from where I want the empire waist down to where I want the dress to end and add 1″ for seam allowances.
Then I take that big rectangle of fabric and sew the selvage edges together to form a tube. After that comes the bottom hem. Then, since the top part of the skirt is bigger than the bottom part of the shirt, I need to gather the skirt part. This is easy! I simply set my sewing machine to the longest length stitch and sew all around the top edge leaving about 1/2″ open. Then – easily – start pulling on the top thread. The fabric will start to gather up. Space this out how you’d like it until it’s the same size as the bottom of the shirt. Sew them together and you have a dress complete with cute little gathering!
There’s other things you can do to finish the seams. Personally, I like to top stitch approximately 1/4″ from the seams. It not only gives it a finished look, but it also keeps the seam laying flat instead of rubbing against her skin causing discomfort.
Since I only needed 23″ x WOF of the yard piece I bought for the dress, I used the remaining 13″ x WOF to make a cowl scarf for her. Actually, I only used 13″ x 25″ for the cowl and have a 13″ x 11″ piece in my scrap pile. Since my little girl is really into her baby dolls, I’ll probably save up the scraps and make her some things for her dolls (clothes, blankets, etc) for her next birthday.
She was so excited when she woke up this morning and seen it that she wanted to wear it right away. LOL Well, that’s 1 thing off my #ridiculouslylongfallist for the 2016 Q4. Now it’s on to dress 2. If you’d like to read my entire 2016 Q4 list you can find it here. So what are you busy working on?
Till next time – happy creating!


