Wednesday Sewing - Dress Up Clothes

If you have a toddler or preschooler on your shopping list this Christmas, you might consider making a few of these easy dress up clothes!  There are lots of great fabrics they look good in - go with animal prints for a jungle theme, sparkly and lacy for a more elegant look, velvet capes are good for wizard play, or shiny spandex for superheroes.

Materials:
*3/4 yard fabric that doesn't fray and won't need hemming
  (you can use other fabric and hem it)
*1 inch elastic
*sew on velcro

Skirt:
1. Measure how long you want the skirt to be (I used the waist to ankle measurement) and add 2 inches.  If you'll be hemming the bottom, add another inch.  Put right sides together, matching selvages, and pin.  Sew with a 1/2 inch seam.

2.  Make a 1 1/4 inch casing along the waist edge - turn 1 1/2 inches of fabric to the inside, turn the bottom edge under 1/4 inch, pin in place and sew, leaving an opening at the seam for the elastic.  Cut a piece of elastic 2 inches larger than the child's waist - since dress up clothes are usually worn over a child's clothing, you'll need a bit of extra room in the waist.  Insert elastic, overlap the ends 1/2 inch and sew securely, and sew up the opening.

That's it!

Cape:
1.  Fold right edges of the fabric together, matching the selvages.  Place a 7 or 8 inch plate along the top with half of it on top of the fabric.

2.  Using a Sharpie or chalk, trace around the bottom of the plate.  As you reach the top of the plate, continue to the right, drawing a rounded tab as shown below.

3.  Draw a line across the bottom of the fabric at the length you want the cape to be.  I made mine 20 inches for a toddler.  Using a straight edge, draw a straight line from the tab you drew to the bottom line.

4.  Here's a drawing showing what I did to this point - the proportion's not correct!

5.  Cut the cape out along the lines you drew.  You can round the bottom corners if you want.

6.  Cut a 1 1/2 inch piece of velcro and round the edges.

7.  Pin one side of the velcro to the right side of a cape tab and the other side of the velcro to the wrong side of the other cape tab.

8.  Sew in place.

And you have a cape!

Here's Super C in action!

Happy Creating!  Deborah