|day 9| Refashion Month Guest: MammaNene from Serger Pepper

I find it amazing when people are talented but aren't really aware of that. That's what I thought about MammaNene (from Serger Pepper) when I invited her to be part os these series and she looked all surprised "Who, me?!". I can't tell anymore how I started following her blog, perhaps through Refashion Co-op as so many other refashion blogs I follow, but I know I liked the things she created quite enough. Go check it for yourself, but before you do so, just look at the great idea and tutorial she has put for us. 

OMG, I'm so excited being part of all that fun... When Magda Estrela asked me to be a guest blogger on her blog on her Refashion July series with all that Stars... I was wondering if she was

Really Asking It To Me... Wow!!!

Then, the second phase, after the Joy, was Terror:
What Can I Do?

Simple: Plaid and Ruffles... Can't Be Wrong!

So I took one of my favorite shirts of the 90's, when a shirt had to be waaay bigger than your size to be cool, and decided to make a dress with it, for My LilPotato... But an original one!
So here we are: a detailed tutorial to share with you, if you want to make one...

What you need:

- a shirt (the larger, the better!)
- a white t-shirt (or scraps of it, you need it for the ruffles!)
- thread, scissors & co.

Let's start!

I like all those dad shirts to daughter's dresses I see on Pinterest, but I wanted to do something different... so I took My Shirt and started turning my head around to see it from different angles and...

Bang!

The Top

Start cutting apart my shirt back and front, along side seams; from the front half, folded along button list, cut the silhouette of a fitting top (just a little larger, being a knit top to be cut on a wooven fabric...), down to old side seams.

Sew side seams right sides facing, then press toward back (use your tailor's ham!) and topstitch them:

The Skirt

Take the back half, folded in half, quarter, eigth then cut in circular shape using a measure tape like a drawing compass. I'm making a 4 years old dress, so I use the longer radius I can: cut your measuring how long you want your skirt to be!
Cut a smaller circle inside, measuring your model's hips and dividing this number for 6.28 (2 x π)... now you have the radius!!

Add top to skirt, marking quarters with pins and matching them. If your skirt circumference is bigger than top one, gather it a bit with a row of machine basting (then pull bobbin thread) before matching pins and sewing on. Remember to press seams toward the top and topstitch like you did on side seams!

Now: the ruffles!

Take a white t-shirt and cut strips orizontally.
I made 8 cm high skirt ruffles strips; for the lenght, measure your skirt hem and multiply it for 1,5-2. Join the strips in circle with a french seam to enclose any raw edge. With your serger (or sewing machine) and contrasting thread, make a rolled hem on one of the long edges. Mark every eigth of the edge of both ruffles and plaid fabrics.
On sleeves, measure the hem lenght and multiply for 1,5; add to this lenght 2 times your strip height (I've made these a little lower than the hem ones); make rolled contrasting hem here too, then fold shorter edges like this and mark halves with a pin:

On all the ruffle pieces, machine bast with a long stitch and no tension along the raw edges, then pull bobbin thread and distribute evenly the gathering...
Match half point and ending points on both ruffles and plaid fabrics (on sleeves) and 1/8 pins (on skirt's hem), then sew, press seam and topstitch, as usual.

Ruffled bib

Make a contrasting rolled hem on 3 white t-shirt strips, machine baste them and ruffle pulling bobbin thread, then pin and sew in place, arranging ruffles evenly distributed; fix 4 slim t-shirt strips to the neckline, as noodle strips... ta-dah!

Look at the twirl factor... it's always a winner with a 4 years old girl!!!

Thank you Magda for the opportunity... it's been a huge pleasure :)
If any of you is sewing a dress with this tutorial, please share on my Flickr pool
If you want to know more about me, please visit me at SergerPepper I'll be happy to hear that you come from House of Estrela!
Hugs from Italy...
MammaNene