the thing in my closet

there's this...thing in my closet. it's big and bulky and taking up space that could be better used housing my shoes. it doesn't seem to really do anything. it just sort of sits there and takes up space. and it's not just me. almost everyone i know seems to have one of these...things invading their closet space, too! what is this strange occupant, you ask? a troll? a monster? a relative who may have had too much to drink at the last reunion and hasn't managed to find his way out again yet? (hey, every family has at least one). but no, it's actually none of these. it's worse. it's a sewing machine.

one of the most skill-underestimated talents out there, i think, is sewing. it looks so simple! just cut some shapes out, run the fabric through the machine, press the peddle, and presto! you're a seamstress! who wouldn't want to just whip up some sassy new outfit every time we were going to a party or date or jog around the block? any time the mood hit us, we could suddenly design a whole spring collection! so we all get this harebrained urge to buy one of these seemingly simple seam stitchers. this crazy thought starts to fog our usually logical minds: i can do this. when i am in the store now and see the newest innocent idiot wandering aimlessly through the aisle of sewing machines, i want to yell as loud as i can, "DON'T DO IT!". i want to slap their hand away from the box they're reaching cluelessly for and shake them from that foggy state, to crush their delusions of grandeur as someone should have crushed mine.

because otherwise, they are going to go home and try to use that machine. they will find that it's not as simple as we all thought and, shock, there is a reason we pay for the service people who actually know how to sew can provide. so we store the machine away in the dark corner of our closets and pile our shoes and boxes and cat food on top of it and forget. until someone mentions a sewing project years later. or perhaps they need a hem fixed or a popped seam resewn. then, suddenly, we get that gleam in our eyes and, for some insane reason, think we can do it again! this happens over and over again in a vicious cycle! then we pass the dang thing down to our children whom we have never taught to sew!!

*deep breath* that's what i hear happens, any way.

seriously, though, i am surrounded by people who have sewing machines. when i see it out on the table, i remark, "oh, i didn't know you could sew." they kind of blink back at me and reply, "i can't." and then we bond over the shared lack of talent and absurdity of having a machine we have little to no idea how to use. that's how i make friends. but i am constantly amazed at how many people i know with these and how few people i know who actually sew! the ratio is not positive!!

well, people, the purpose of this post is...it's happened again. that fog has clouded my judgment and i pulled the darn thing out of the closet. i plugged it in and managed to fill my bobbin and thread my needle (surprised i know how to do that? yeh, me, too). i went to the store and bought some fabric and tulle and elastic. i even got out the measuring tape and wrote down the waist measurements of my girls. then i sat down with it all and thought: oh, crap. now what?

and why, you ask, would i do this after the rant at the beginning of my post? what could possibly make me venture into that fog again? well...it was this:

Ucreate

c'mon! is that not just the cutest thing you've ever seen?!! she calls is the cotton candy skirt. tell me that doesn't make you want to sew! and she makes it look so easy!! it's just sewing some tulle onto a long strip of fabric and attached to some elastic, right? straight lines, people! HOW HARD COULD IT BE??

so i took a chance. i downloaded her tutorial and decided that was not only going to make this, but i was going to make three of them for my girls to wear to the wedding we were going to a few days later. i was very determined that this would happen. delusional, people. i'm telling you, it's a serious problem!

should you be itching to get out your own sewing machine now, having seen the awesome cuteness that could be yours, let me walk you through the process that i went through so that you can, hopefully, learn from my...experience.

i'll walk through the tutorial from the blog i got this from. in italics beneath it, i'll comment on how that worked for me with some pics.

Step 1
Measure the rectangle for your skirt. I tripled (really--she wanted fluffy remember?) her waist measurement which is 20. So my rectangle is 60 inches by 16 inches for the height. Serge both edges and then turn under bottom and hem.


got it. this was pretty easy.

Step 2
Make your tulle "bundles." I used 4 yards of tulle and I did end up using all of it in the skirt. I cut strips that were 6 inches by width of the tulle bolt. You should have approximately 24 strips of tulle. Now cut these in half. This should give you 48 smaller strips of tulle.

Now make your bundles...

I am showing you the next steps with fabric (pretend it's tulle)--the tulle didn't show up very well on camera to fold it.

Fold tulle in half.Then fold it in half again. You should have something that looks like this.

Then bunch the top into a bundle--it will look like a tiny paper bag.

You are going to sew where my fingers are.

ok...this got a little confusing. i couldn't figure out how to work all of those measurements with what i had until i realized that she was using bolts of tulle whereas i had bought the rolls of it. so i just kind of guessed the length i needed and started folding:

then i sewed the bundles at the top and set them in a pile:
after i finished the skirt, however, i decided that "pre-sewing" the bundles like this was a waste of my time and the most tedious part of the the whole process. for the next one, i simply bunched them in my fingers and sewed it directly onto the fabric as i went. this not only saved time, but it looked "cleaner" as well without the extra messy lines of thread.

Step 3
Layer your tulle "bundles" on the skirt and sew on in rows vertically like the picture shown. I did 3 rows of 15 or 16 bundles per row.


this step was easy enough, though i will clarify that you need to sew on one line at a time, starting with the bottom since you are layering more on top of it. however, again, if you are simply sewing them on as you go rather than bundling and then sewing, you don't need the pinning step. just have your tulle cut, folded, and sitting in a pile beside you. here's the way it looked the original way, though:

Step 4

Sew up your side seam. Turn under the top to put in casing. Then, thread elastic in and sew up. And you're done!


okay, that was a bit abrupt of an ending, don't you think? where's the "how to" on threading the elastic? because that was freakin' awful!! anyway, a tip on sewing the casing. fold the top of the fabric FORWARD rather than backward and use it to cover up the top of your top row of tulle, as it is likely to look pretty darn messy. the other rows aren't a problem because they're under the rest of the tulle, but that top row...well, let's just say it needs a nice cover.

so that was it. the first one was the hardest, but it came out pretty darn cute:
of course, that model could make anything look good! including the totally mismatched outfit here. hey, i was lucky to get her still long enough to get the skirt over her clothes and get a couple of pics. i wasn't going to try to wrestle her out of the clothes she had one first!

one more tip for this one that the tutorial does not mention: make sure you choose a fabric that is the same color, or very close to it, as your tulle. the fabric i used here was too light for the tulle and showed through too much, i think.

so, there you have it. the second skirt was a lot easier to make with what i learned from the first one, so i would definitely recommend trying this one. do not, however, start designing that spring collection just yet. with my head still big from this success, i tried to make a little bubble style dress for this same model...let's just say that the fog has lifted after that one.