Tute Sweet Tuesdays: Little Black Dot Dress Tute

Welcome to our first Tute Sweet Tuesday!

To kick it off : Adding a ruffly hem to lengthen a dress

Skill Level: Easy Peasy

Items Needed: 
Matching or Coordinating Material

Iron

Matching Thread

Sewing Machine

Twine or Embroidery Floss-I'll explain later

Sewing Time: About an hour

I've got a dress that I bought at Ross Dress for Less.  I bought it for $13 and I LOVE it! Only problem: it was a bit too short.   For those darling skirts or dresses that look fabulous on the hanger, but are just a little too short for your liking, this is an easy fix that doesn't take too much time OR money.  It would look great to use a contrasting or coordinating material (OR lace!!) on the bottom to spruce it up and make it uniquely your own. 

Ok, get on your thinking caps! (for me-a calculator...ha!) First figure out how many inches you'd like to add.  I wanted about 5 more inches so I cut it 6"-figure about 1/2" hem and 1/4" at the top to sew to the original hem.   

Next lay down the skirt or dress and measure the width.  Mine was 23-1/2".  Times it by 2. That is the total width of your skirt. (Me: 47") Times that number by 2 (Me: 94").  I ended up using a total of 109" for more frill on my skirt.  The width of my material that I had was 36" so I cut three strips and sewed them right sides together to make one long strip (equaling 109"). Making sense so far? 

   Close up of my strips sewn together:

Next you're going to iron 1/4"seam for the bottom hem.  

Then fold it over another 1/4" and iron.  So you'll have a hem that is a total of 1/2" but you'll see only 1/4" of it.

Next we SEW your new hem all the way around.

Now after we have the hem all nice and perdy, we're going to go the top of our material and start our frilly ruffle.  This may seem like it's the hardest part, but it's really quite simple.  I'm going to teach you a neat trick for the ruffle.  You're going to use the twine or embroidery floss now.  Using a zigzag stitch, place the floss or twine smack dab in the middle.  

Make sure you keep the floss in the center of the pedal foot and zigzag away.  

Once you're finished stitching the floss all away around, pull the floss to get the ruffle.  Pin to skirt and sew with a straight stitch.  I left the floss in until I finished sewing the ruffle to the skirt.  Feel free to use a stitch ripper to have better access to your floss once your finished.

                       And....  

                                    Voila!! 
Don't mind the pasty legs... they have yet to see the sun

We would love to know how you did. Send us your work!

Good Luck and Happy Sewing!

Love,

Roz and Ash

*Heads up: I didn't sew close enough to the end of the bottom of the real hem so it flips up.  Be mindful as you do so.  Good thing I make mistakes so you don't have too ;)