Seam Heat

You will need: 

4 yards of a nice fabric. Mine had to be white for graduation purposes, but it could be anything. I used a sateen, and it was extremely fragile to work with but very rewarding because the dress turned out really nice. 

A long zipper, 24 inches to be safe. It is exposed, so choose a cool color. Mine was pink. 

A lot of thread that matches your fabric. 

About 5 hours, depending on how fast you sew. Allow yourself lots of time, because you don't want to rush it or else it won't fit well.

A dress form! The whole top is draped, so you need a dress form set to your EXACT measurements. 

The first thing you do is follow my circle skirt tutorial. Follow all the steps, but don't sew in the zipper yet. Also, you may want to make the waistband wider to accommodate for the top to be sewn in. 

Here's a link to the tutorial: 

http://seamheat.tumblr.com/post/22806540305/circle-skirt-tutorial

Once that is over, you make the top. My top was 3 pieces: one large piece for the front and two smaller pieces for the back. I left the back of this dress completely open, which made sewing in the zipper easier, and also used less fabric. The whole top was draped on my mannequin, so there aren't specific measurements for the top, but here are some general instructions. 

Cut each part out of muslin or some cheap fabric on the mannequin, then use that piece of fabric as a stencil of sorts and make TWO of that piece in the nice fabric. Sew them right sides together so that the dress is not see through. (This is called self lining.) Don't sew the edges that will eventually be sewn to another piece so that you can turn the piece right side out and iron it flat. 

The front is tailored based on the darts below the breasts. These should be measured on you, not just on the dress form, because people boobs are different from mannequin boobs. The darts are created by cutting slits and sewing them together again. The best way to describe this is to sew the hypotenuse of an isosceles right triangle, so that the bottom is smaller and the part just below the nipple is basically the same size. 

The back is extremely simple. It is basically two skinny right triangles. They meet at the waistband (where the zipper starts), so that the back is completely open. However, when attaching the front and back pieces, be certain that the strap widths line up and the sides match up to fit properly. This is when a dress form is crucial. 

Sew the right sides of the top and skirt together along the top of the waistband, and voila, you have yourself an awesome dress! Wait... first you need to sew in your zipper. Mine attached from the top of the waistband to the bottom of the skirt, so it zips all the way down and has that cool exposed zipper look. I hand sewed my zipper because I was watching TLC and I wanted it to be perfect. Feel free to machine sew yours, but I thought hand sewing was safer. 

What you'll need: 

1 to 1.5 yards of a flowy fabric like chiffon organza or something tacky and polyester like mine

1/2 yard of a jersey knit for the tight lining. This should be neutral colored or the same color as the fabric above, because it will show through.

1/2 yard of a cotton in a pattern/color that compliments the flowy fabric. This is for the waistband.

a 7 inch zipper. NOTE: I used a 4 inch zipper and I regret it immensely. It needs to be longer. 

About 2 hours (or 4 if you plan on watching TLC while sewing)

I didn't take a picture of my sketch of the measurements, but honestly its just a bunch of rectangles. The first thing I made was the waistband. I put tiny pin tucks on mine because that's how the FP one was but honestly its kind of a waste of time. For clearer instructions on pintucking, look at my tutorial for the striped pintuck skirt. 

Fold your long waistband rectangle so that one side is about 4 inches long. This will be the inside. Leave the other side long for pin tucks. 

This is what it looks like with the pin tucks. I like the texture. 

As you can see, you're not even close to done yet. The next thing I did was make the grey jersey knit lining. This was easy, and essentially the same as the lining in the vintage lace skirt (another tutorial of mine). You basically just cut the fabric and wait to sew it into the waistband with the flowy fabric. 

Next, I ruffled the blue flowy fabric. I did this by sewing a straight stitch all the way across the top of the fabric. DO NOT BACKSTITCH. I REPEAT. DON'T BACKSTITCH because the ruffles are made by pulling  the fabric across the thread inward, kind of like pulling the thread out the sides. This sounds confusing but is super easy.

(My nails are ugly, don't judge me.)

Once you have ruffled the fabric down to the width of the waistband, sew the flowy fabric and the lining inside of the two layers of the waistband, tucking in the edges so nothing is raw. I did not succeed at this.

lol I suck. 

ANYWHOO now at this point I decided to make my lining separate from the outer layer, so I sewed the vertical seam independently in both fabrics. This is up to you because its easier to sew them together (less turning inside out confusion). While sewing the vertical seam, sew in the zipper at the top. Hem the bottom of the flowy fabric to the desired length and VOILA your skirt is BANGIN and way cheaper than at free people. 

It's pretty self explanatory: I basically made a grey tee shirt, then cut out portions and sewed in the blue lace. Here's the back:

What you'll need will vary depending on your scraps and the size you want your bag to be, so there's no "materials list" for this project. This bag is very simple: just cut 4x4" or 5x5" squares of your scraps and lay them out in the pattern you want, and sew them together like a quilt. Its super easy! (I didn't even take any pictures of these steps because they were so mundane.) For my bag, I made two 3x4 rectangles and sewed them together for the front and back of the bag. Then, sew the two rectangles right sides together on 3 edges. This is where my aunt came in: my machine was too weak for the heavy-duty fabrics I used. To solve the problem, we sent the work-in-progress (pins and all) to my aunt in North Carolina to finish. She then sewed in the lining and the handles. For the handles, just sew two long rectangles of one of your fabrics with their right-sides together to make two long tubes, then turn them right sides out and iron them flat. Sew them in between the outside and the lining. Also, before sewing in the lining, attach magnetic clasps to the outside of the lining (inside of the bag) so that the bag stays closed. Then sew in the lining, and you're done! Here are some pictures so my instructions make more sense. 

(Close-up of squares in pattern)

(Close-up of magnetic clasp)

(Close-up of lining)

Note: This post is more of an "Idea Springboard" than a tutorial. It's pretty vague because you can get really creative with your scraps! If you cut too many squares, sew a pocket into the lining! Try using a zipper instead of magnetic clasps! Make a matching wallet with tiny squares! Have fun, and never throw away your scraps! :)

For this skirt, you will need:

Around 2 yards of fabric, I used a cool stripe which I recommend

LOTS of matching thread, because this skirt uses hella thread and the vast majority of stitching is visible.

Elastic

About 2 hours

First, cut the fabric. Measure your waist or where you want the skirt to sit. I measured around my butt because I have a big one and if I just use my waist measurements my rump never fits. So if you have a "donk", use that measurement instead. For the width, cut 1.5 x the waist (or butt) measurement. As for length, don't cut the length at all yet, because the pin-tucking uses a lot of fabric. I cut the length at the end. Here's a diagram:

Pretty simple! Now for the pin-tucking. Start the first ridge about 10 inches down on the fabric. This makes the bubble shape, so the volume isn't too high up on the waist. I made each of my ridges 1 inch, so it uses two inches of fabric. This is because you pinch the fabric up and pin it, then sew it almost as if it's a hem, but both sides of the ridge are "right side" of the fabric. Here is a picture to help explain what I'm talking about:

(This was taken after 2 tucks so you see the way it turns out.) The secret to getting them so neat is accurate measuring, consistent ironing, and using a stripe pattern that worked out PERFECTLY with my desired pin-tuck length. But seriously, you MUST iron each ridge one at a time before sewing them. It may seem inefficient (because it is) but it makes for some spot-on craftsmanship which is key when sewing with patterns and textures. After many more tucks, it'll look like this:

Once you reach your desired length from your many pin-tucks (I had 9), you can cut the remaining fabric to about 1 inch past the final tuck. Now is the easy yet important part: the vertical seam. With stripes, it will look sloppy if you don't line up the pattern and ridges along the seam. Mine was only kind of sloppy. I must say I'm proud. Pin right sides together and sew a vertical seam.

Yay! You're almost done! Now just sew the top elastic casing (1.5 inches, or however thick your elastic is. Don't forget to leave a little open to get the elastic in! Rookie mistake.), and the bottom hem. (Mine was only about 1/4 inch.) Here they are respectively:

(sorry it's so hard to see the stitching, the pattern is just so busy!)

Thread your elastic through and sew the ends together, and voila! You have a sweet unique skirt!

This is a super easy skirt to make. All you need is:

about 1 yard of a lightweight fabric, try a linen or seersucker (for the more experienced). Mine was a little stretchy, which was cool.

A 7 inch zipper that matches your fabric (It will show. I'm all about the exposed zipper.)

Matching thread

About 1 hour

Step one is to take measurements and cut your fabric accordingly. All you really need is a big rectangle for the skirt and a little rectangle for the waistband. 

Now that the fabric is cut, hem the bottom of the main rectangle.

Once the bottom is hemmed, pin the skirt into pleats. My pleats were about 3 inches each, but the secret is to take the length of your fabric, subtract the waist measurement you took, and divide that number by the number of pleats you want. This sounds complex, so lets throw some numbers in.

Waist measurement: 30 in. Fabric length: 45 in. 45-30= 15. You want 5 pleats, lets say. 15/5=3. Your pleats would be 3 inches. You might have to play with this a bit to get it right. 

Once you have pinned the pleats, the top part of your skirt should have the same length as your waistband you cut earlier. Sew the edges of the skirt and waistband together, right sides together. Once this is done, fold the whole skirt in half right sides together and sew about 3/4 up the side of the skirt (to leave room for the zipper). Sew in the zipper by the instructions on the zipper package. Iron that (seer)sucker and throw it on!