Rainbow Butterfly Skirt

So I was looking around Pinterest yesterday and realized that all the pins for my Rainbow Butterfly Skirt were going back to Project Run and Play, where I did a guest posting and the tutorial. This made me realize that I never posted the tutorial to my own site, so I am fixing that mistake....

Flickr Friends: Jessica from My Inner Need to Create

Hi y'all! I am Jessica and I blog over at My Inner Need to Create. I am a stay-at-home mother to 3 kids (8, 4 and 3) but once a upon a time I was a web and graphic designer. Though I am not doing this as my career right now, I see this side of my style bleed through into all my crafting. In fact I like to think of all the clothes I make as a canvas waiting for me to make it into a piece of art. I like to do this in many ways but love the look of appliqueing...

Here is a recent appliquéd project: Rainbow Butterfly Skirt.

To start I took a skirt of my daughter's to use as a pattern. I chose a thick gray knit as the fabric for the skirt (it was left over from my Superhero Circle Dress from Week 1 of the Sew Along). I just made a simple A-line skirt with no seem allowance for the top since I planned on using 1.5 inch elastic for the exposed waistband.

After the front and back of the skirt was cut out, I sewed one of the side seems together and laid out the skirt flat. Next I drew out the butterfly design, I used the skirt shape to dictate the cropping on the butterfly.

Take your design and trace it on to Iron-On Fusible Interfacing, make sure that you reverse the image!

Iron the butterfly onto the black fabric.

Next- cut it out.

Peel off the paper from the back of the butterfly, you will need this for a template in a minute.

For my butterfly I wanted a rainbow, but at this step you could use a cute print or a solid color. I choose my colors and sewed them together in 1.5 inch strips.

After the strips are sewed together and ironed flat, use the paper backing off of the Iron-On Fusible Interfacing as a template and cut out the wings.

Iron the black part of the butterfly onto the colors. Take another piece of interfacing and iron it onto the back of the entire butterfly. Then iron that piece onto the skirt.

Next you have to zigzag around all the black raw edges. I sewed with black thread...

but with a gray bobbin thread so that I didn't have to line the skirt.

I sewed the skirt together at the other side then I attached the 1.5 inch black eleastic as the waistband.

The skirt turned out very eye-catching with the bold, big butterfly but it is a really simple jersey knit skirt with very limited sewing skill needed (the zigzagging around the pieces of the appliqué takes the most practice.)

My daughter loves the skirt and wears it everytime she finds it in her drawer clean.

I took these photos with her wearing a black leotard as her top but a 3 year old wearing a leotard all day is really not ideal for going to the bathroom. So I refashioned a slimming black tank top from an old (very old!) tube top if you hop over to my blog you can check out the tutorial!

Thanks for inviting me to guest post during this month of Flicker Friends! I am so glad to be able to get in on the fun! I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Skirt Week for Me!

So, I have been busy but my blog's been quiet- I can't post my newest creations yet because they are gifts or for my sister's shower and I want them to be a surprise... and she would peek! Oh, you know you would, Jamie!

But I did finish a skirt for my entry into Skirt Week over at Crafterhours. Here is the adult flickr group. My Rainbow Butterfly Applique Skirt I entered into the child category seen on flickr here.

For this skirt I decided I needed to make something with a little more flare to it. So I thought I would use the same technique and Flat Tulip Fabric Paint that I did for my Hand Painted Earth Day Dress for Project Run & Play Sew Along. This time I decided to paint a big graphic swirl pattern onto the side of my skirt.

Here's how I did it:
I took my waist measurement -4 inches= width of the rectangle
Then the length I wanted the skirt= length of the rectangle
For the back rectangle I added 1 inch to the width (for seam allowance for the zipper) then cut this second rectangle in to two pieces.
For the top piece you will need the length to be your waist measurement + 3 inches (so the ends overlap like a belt) and the width should be 6 inches.
Here are the pieces you just cut out:

Next I sewed one of the side seams together and sewed the zipper into the back pieces so that I could lay the skirt out flat like this:

Now is a good time to hem so that you paint over the stitching and it won't interfere with your art work. I forgot (and if you want to try on the skirt first before you hem you can do the same) so I had to go back and touch up with paint onto the white thread that ran through my design. It was extra work but it ended up ok.

Next I drew out a design onto the fabric.

Now all you have to do is paint.

Takes a little bit of time, but not really hard. Then iron your design to set the paint, but make sure it is completely dry first!

Now assemble the skirt, sew the second side seam and gather the top of the skirt.

Then using the top "belt" like bias tape, sew the belt to the skirt wrong side to right side, flip over the belt and roll under before top stiching around the right side of the skirt.

I just used cheap little loop & hooks to close the skirt (since they aren't seen I didn't think it would be a big deal).

And you're done!

I really think that fabric painting and appliqueing dresses up solid fabrics which are often the cheapest ones you can find.

Well, I am off to dinner and a movie with my lovely husband of 11 years, yesterday was our anniversary, (he was working) in my lovely new skirt.

Hope you all had a nice weekend!

Skirt Week: Rainbow Butterfly Skirt

I had such a great time participating in Project Run & Play Sew Along this year I thought I would search out some more competitions to enter into... So here is my entry into Skirt Week 2012! It is a competition over at Crafterhours.

I choose to applique an oversize rainbow butterfly on a simple knit skirt with an elastic waistband.

Want to know how I made it? Well you will have to wait... I have been asked to post a tutorial over at Project Run & Play!!! It will be my first guest post and I am so excited!

But not only did this invite come when I am hosting a baby shower for my sister, have 4 orders of Piggie & Gerald dolls waiting on me, got my wisdom teeth out last week, but I am also going out of town for a family reunion for 2 weeks! So I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and use my entry into skirt week as the project to do my guest tutorial on.

So if you want a really detailed tutorial on how to applique a butterfly on to a skirt check out the Project Run & Play blog on June 28th!

Ok... off to make baby shower favors for my little sister's shower!

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