Well, I told y’all that I couldn’t stop making matching dresses for Harlow and her dolls!  I’m back at it with some gorgeous jersey fabric from the Limited Edition Fabric Collection, Gleeful, from the amazing Sew Caroline!

When she asked if I would join in her blog-hop for these new fabrics, I jumped at the chance to try the jersey fabrics!  I’ll be honest, sewing jersey has scared me in the past, but this fabric is such a high quality, I am absolutely addicted.

I think last week I sewed a dress for Harlow, a dress for her doll, a skirt for me…a skirt for Harlow….and 3 more dresses for Harlow. 

um. Whoops. Sewing for me is so therapeutic, and this fabric was a dream.  It’s a 4-way stretch jersey (cotton and a wee bit of spandex), but thick and durable too.

I really debated what to make initially, and after I decided on making a dress for Harlow and a matching one for her doll, I wanted something for myself too. :) So, I changed my plans to match the stripes at a front of Harlow’s dress to make more of a chevron pattern….well, because I was being greedy and wanted some fabric for more projects.  I don’t think she minds — and I still think it turned out ridiculously cute!

The dress is fairly simple to make from start to finish — and since I loved both fabrics so much, I thought making the dress completely reversible would be a great way to switch it up.

The basic creation and construction follows the basic steps of this tutorial I shared with y’all on Tuesday!  There are a few changes due to the fabric being jersey, an entire dress (not just the bodice having lining), and it being completely reversible!  I’ll share a few steps to hopefully walk you through the process, but please let me know if you have questions!  Or if you’d like me to go into more depth on the steps I took to create it, and I’ll revisit it again soon.

Like I need another excuse to sew another dress for Harlow. :) 

1|| I began with the same bodice pattern I used for this dress.  I wanted to make the front and back the same, with a bit of a deeper V-neck than the scoop neck on the last.

2|| I then traced the bodice pattern to a longer piece of paper, so I could extend the skirt pattern.  I wanted — correct, Harlow wanted — the dress to twirl (she wants everything to twirl), so I had both the middle seam and side seams swing out for the skirt.

3|| Cut out 4  pieces of both your side 1 and side 2 fabrics.  If you are using a patterned fabric, like I was, be sure to think through and mirror your pattern if needed for everything to line up correctly.

4|| Start sewing!  As I mentioned, the construction steps closely follow the twirly dress I shared earlier this week.

Begin by sewing the front center seams and shoulder seams of fabric 1 and then fabric 2.

Sew fabric 1 and 2 together at the neck seam — right sides together.

Sew arm openings together — right sides together.

Turn right-side out. 

Working each specific seam, match right sides together of side 1/side 2, and sew all remaining side and back seams.

All of the seams should sew up pretty easily — I chose to top stitch together my side and center seams of the two fabrics, just to hold everything in place.

And then you’ll be left with just the bottom hem to complete!  You can go about hemming your dress a few ways:

1. Raw Jersey // Because this dress is made from a jersey fabric, the raw edge won’t fray.  So if you’d like?  Trim the bottom hem and leave it.  It’ll roll a bit, but it shouldn’t fray.
2. Serge Bottom Edge // Serge the bottom edge of the dress together.
3. Hem the Same length for both sides // You can trim your dress as needed, fold and press hem and sew together using a zigzag or double needle.  If you cut both sides the same length, each side of the dress will show only that fabric.
4. Have one fabric be an accent hem on the other side // I chose to cut my striped fabric side a bit longer than the yellow fabric!  I then folded and pressed the stripes 1/4″ and then about 1.5″ again.  I love how it adds the pop of color to the yellow side of her dress!  Harlow calls the yellow side the “Belle side” — princesses, people. 

And then twirl, twirl, twirl!  Harlow has been begging to wear this dress constantly — and I think a big part of the draw is that she can choose which fabric to have showing each time!  Of course Sissy always needs to match!

pretty proud of her new “winting” skills (winking)

Thank you, Caroline for including me in the Gleeful fabric blog-hop!  I have been absolutely loving what has been created this month using her fabrics — which are now available!  I also love scrolling through all the photos posted to Instagram using her new fabric line!  You really can’t help but smile when you sew with these fabrics — the colors are so happy and bright…and the fabric quality of Art Gallery fabrics is just out of this world.

Have an amazing Friday!

xo

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