Oh, look what that Singer Featherweight Ruffle Attachment Can Do!

So it is a tradition here to dress up your little girl in either a cheerleader outfit, a dolled up Bulldog t-shirt, or some other cute outfit for the football games.

Look what I did with my Singer Featherweight Ruffle Attachment.

Now I didn't like the way the attached skirt came straight down, so I had to figure out how to make it more flowly.  I took part of it off (I wanted to keep the ruffles), and add a more flowly part to the outfit.

Here is what I came up with.  Moved some things up, added a ruffle on the bottom with a flared insert piece and attached it to the original bottom ruffle.  This worked out pretty well.

Here are the two Bulldog type outfits that I've made so far.  What you haven't seen are the Bulldog capri pants.  That is another post!

Here is our model, with her coordinating Bulldog hairbows, showing off the outfit.  All with the Singer Featherweight 221 Ruffler.  Now, if I could get the Singer Featherweight ZigZag attachment to work, then I could finish off the edges all on one machine.  The zigzag attachement is kinda cagegy.  Anyone know how to make it work well?

Your thoughts?

Ruffles, can a girl have too many?

Adding a ruffle to the bottom of the top.  Whoops!  I should have added the rest of the strips to the fabric before I added it to the top!  Well, you only make a mistake once (hopefully) to learn this lesson.  Grace wanted to wear this before I finished it!  (An idea for later!)

Here is the added strip, then a mix of colors for the added ruffle.  I had to gather the top of this strip, in order to fit it easily to the bottom ruffle on the top.  Worked out well, and was easy to put together.  So maybe this is an okay way to do it.  I'll have to get out my Pfaff or Serger that Tammy gave me, and next time finish off the edges with a zigzag, or a sergered (oh my gosh!) edge.  The serger scares me....it even has the thread, still threaded in it, so I'll have no problem threading....hmmm.

Here she is at Mother's Day Out, wearing her bulldog print dress.  The girls tend to wear their cheerleader outfit, or school t-shirts the weeks, that a football game occurs.  Right here, Grace is trying to get Cooper to wake up.  "Wake Up Cooper!"  He still sleeps!

And one of her 24 month skirts, I added a test ruffle that I initially did with my Singer Featherweight 221 ruffle attachment.  She can still wear the skirt, as she is no longer in diapers!  (Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose!)

What else can I ruffle?  Ideas anyone?  Please give me a post/link and I'll try it!

Ruffles on Winter pants (or, have I grown taller since December?)

Here we go!  Adding ruffles to the end of her toddler pants from last winter.  Using my Singer Featherweight 221 Sewing machine, and the 221 (which other models can use too), ruffler.

Sewing the wrong sides together, before putting it into the ruffler.  The ruffler doesn't seam to want to put much material through it (thickness wise).  Maybe there is an adjustment to make on the ruffler, to take thicker fabric?  Mom?

Using my 1/4 patchwork foot on my Singer Featherweight 221 machine. 

Here I am using the Ruffler for the 221 machine, on the edge that I just sewed together.

Putting the ruffled material, now on the capri pant.

I'm sewing the ruffle on.  I switch back and forth between the ruffler and the 1/4 inch foot like in no time.

After ironing, topstitching, to further set the seam.

And here are the pants!

Here is the model wearing her new capri pants, with matching ruffle hair bow from previous project!  Lots of orange in this household (Go POKES - Oklahoma State University!)

My TeeCycle and Simple Hair Bow Efforts

Finally Sewed!

Took ideas from GrosGrainFabulous website tutorial at:
http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/08/teecycle-dress-tutorial-and-giveaway.html
and made my own TeeCycle dress!

• Cut off one of Grace's Mother's Day Out t-shirts.
• Then measured the bottom of the t-shirt.  Multiplied times 2.
• Cut three strips of fabric 4 inches wide by 52 inches long.
• Sewed a long stitch, and hand gathered the top edge of one of the strips.
• Then sewed on the other two long strips onto the gathered strip.  
• Sewed on the gathered edge onto the bottom of the t-shirt.
• Then cut out two  7 inch wide by 52 inch long strips.
• Sewed the two 7 by 52 inch strips together at the short end.
• Folded the fabric wrong sides together (form a 3.5 inch strip), and sewed 1/4 inch to make the ruffle part of the dress.
• Put on the Singer Sewing Featherweight Ruffle attachment to my machine, then just kind of guessed, and ruffled away.  
• Pressed the gathered edge, and attached it to the bottom of the dress 1/2 inch seam.  Then pressed.
• Then I topstitched the edge of where I attached the ruffle onto the bottom of the dress (Thanks Tammy!).

Additionally, made a long tube of fabric, changed up the ruffle adjustments a bit, and made a long ruffle, on both sides of the fabric.  Then I used the "How to make a simple Bow" tutorial at: http://smallvillestudio.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-make-simple-bow.html 

Here is the finished product!

Hair Bow Up Close!












Here is Miss Grace, lounging in her new playdress!

Sew Baby

Sew Baby at sewbaby.com has put up photos of the outfits that I made for Grace from their patterns.  It is in their "Show and Tell" section http://www.sewbaby.com/shopbaby/index2.php?cPath=319 . If you want to see more details.  That was when I was on my sewing spree.....can't seam to find my sewing path these days...