DIY Crop Top

Today I will teach you how to make your very own elasticated crop top just like the one in the above picture! Before we start...  You need to know that each piece of fabric has a "right side" and a "wrong side". I'll refer to these terms throughout the tutorial. For example when I say place fabric "right-sides together", I mean place the pieces together with the pretty sides touching. Also, you will need to know how to do a straight stitch, and how to back stitch (sewing backwards and forwards at the beginning and end of each stitch you make, to secure it in place and ensure that the stitches do not "fall out"). As long as you can do these two things on a sewing machine (and seriously, just google it if you can't), you're ready to give this DIY a go! What you will need: Fabric - I recommend a fabric with a little bit of stretch. You will need fabric for the outside of the top, as well as fabric for the inside “lining” - you can just use the same fabric for both, if you want, but both top and lining fabrics should have the same amount of “stretch”. Note: I've made this top using non-stretchy fabric too, but unless you have double-jointed shoulders, it's pretty hard to get on and off! A small piece of elastic (just enough to fit around your waist!) Scissors A pen Pins A safety pin A sewing machine (you could do it without if you are very patient, but using a machine will make your life a lot easier) A measuring tape Newspaper Making a pattern Cut out a pattern that looks like the newspaper piece below, but using your own measurements. Note: Waist and under-boob measurements go all the way around you, and shoulder-to-shoulder is basically bra-strap to bra-strap, across your neck/chest (to get a better idea of where you should be measuring, if you're confused, click here). I usually just round up my waist measurement to make it the same as my bust measurement, because I find that easier in drafting a pattern (and I don't have much of a bust anyway), but if you're bustier, I recommend taking note of the difference! I also recommend adding 2 inches or so to your bust and waist measurements before drawing them onto your pattern (this is your "seam allowance", and giving yourself a bit of extra fabric is never a bad idea - you can pretty easily make something smaller if it's too big, but it's much harder to make something larger if it's too small!) After you've drawn your pattern and cut it out, "wear" it to make sure that it is about the right size. Cutting your fabric Next, place your pattern onto your piece of fabric and cut that out. Tip: to save on time, I doubled my fabric over before cutting it out - which means that I got two pieces from one cut! You should end up with two identical pieces cut from your fabric. One is the "back" and the other is the "front". Making darts This step isn't necessary, and you can feel free to leave it out if you want (you'll just end up with a slightly different style of crop top)! To make darts, take your "front" piece, and on the wrong side of the fabric, draw a horizontal line just underneath the "arm hole" about 6-8 inches long (depending on your size), then make it into a triangle. Fold the fabric on the horizontal line, and using a straight stitch sew along one of the triangle's edges. And you should end up with something that looks like this: Lining your top Your lining pieces need to be cut out so that they are the exact same size and shape as your front and back pieces. To cut out your lining, all you need to do is place them (right-side down) on the lining fabric, pin, and cut around them! Keep your fabric and the lining pinned together (you'll see why in a moment). (Note: as I mentioned before, my lining is cut from the same fabric as my top.) You should end up with this after cutting out: front and back pieces pinned right-sides-together with their lining. For both the front and back pieces, sew them to their lining pieces by sewing all the way around the edges EXCEPT for the bottom edge. Then, turn the pieces inside out, and you should have two of these (they should remind you a little bit of Finn from Adventure Time's hat). Constructing the top You need to pin these two "hats" together at the shoulders and sides. They should be pinned right-sides together (remember that I used the same floral fabric as my lining, so don't get confused by that here!) Then you just need to sew the back and the front together at only the sides and the shoulders! Turn it inside out, and try it on (this will work if you've sewn it in all the right places)! If it's a bit too big, then all you need to do is turn it back inside out, and sew the seams further in! For example... Make sure you do this (especially if it's too wide) before the next step, if you do need to resize it! You're very almost done. Now you just need to fix up that raw edge, and insert your elastic! Elasticating the waist First, wrap your elastic around your waist, stretching it a little bit, but not so much that it's uncomfortably tight. Cut your elastic while it's stretched at this length. Then, while while your top is turned inside-out, fold the bottom edge of the top up like in the below photo, making sure that it's folded up the same distance all the way around (and is a little bit wider than your piece of elastic - put the elastic next to it for reference). Pin the fabric together all the way around to secure it. Then, simply sew a straight stitch almost all the way around, creating a "casing" for your elastic. Unlike before, your stitches are now going to be visible, so make sure that the thread compliments your fabric. You stitch almost all the way around because you need to leave a small gap where you will insert your elastic. Pin a safety pin onto one end of your elastic. Insert this end in through the gap in the top, and use the safety pin to pull it all the way through the casing, and out the other end! (Make sure you don't lost the other end of the elastic while you do this! A good tip is to put safety pins on both ends of the elastic, just in case this happens). After you've threaded your elastic all the way through, sew the ends together, and push the elastic back inside the casing. To finish it off, sew across the "gap", making sure that you don't accidentally sew over the elastic inside the tube. And that's it! Enjoy making your very own! For a different style of crop-top, you might choose to leave out the elastic, make a higher or a lower neckline, make it oversized, or forget about the darts - a huge number of variations are possible! Please tweet or tag me in a photo if you happen to try this out for yourself - I'd love to see the results! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

We'll Go To Very Distant Lands / The Human Story

Crop top is handmade | Skirt is handmade | socks are from Japan | bag is thrifted | shoes are c/o Yeswalker Hooray, golden hour photos are always the best! Although, being at a beautiful beach never hurts for photo-taking, either. I've escaped to the beach for a few days to finally relax after my crazy semester of work in the laboratory. And as there is a sewing machine at the place I'm staying, I brought a whole bunch of fabric with me to make a new summer wardrobe - however my own clothes-making kept being delayed by a very assertive two-and-a-half year old who insisted I make her a dress first (I couldn't say no, she's way too cute). However, I did learn from that experience that my smock-dress pattern definitely works for different sizes, which is good to know! Tomorrow, I will be posting the DIY tutorial for this crop-top (it's all written up and ready to go, I promise!) So come back tomorrow if you want to learn how to make a crop-top of your own. Follow me on facebook or twitter if you want to know as soon as it's posted. P.s. did anyone catch where the title of this blog post is from? ;) I love a good science video - especially one which is short enough for my youtube-attention span (seriously, if a video is longer than about 4 minutes I don't even bother). Starting from the big bang to the formation of stars and planets, the development of single-celled organisms to the age of the dinosaurs, the domination of furry mammals to human beings with satellites and buildings - in one minute and 37 seconds, using the best of our evidence and scientific consensus, this is how you got where you are right now, sitting in front of a computer reading a fashion blog and contemplating your own existence. p.p.s. my new Birdee article is up! I'd love it if you had a read! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

8 Ways To Wear It - Smock Dresses

Now that you've gone and made your very own smock-dress using this tutorial, you obviously want to wear it all the time in order to show off your amazing sewing skills! Problem is, people will start getting a bit suss if you wear the same outfit every single day ("...has she even gone home to shower in the past week?")  So, I styled my smock dress in eight different ways to give you an idea of how you can get the most possible wear out of your labour of love, yet still look like you're wearing a fresh outfit each day! dress is DIY | both shirts are thrifted | shoes no longer for sale | cat necklace is c/o I Love Crafty Keep in mind that because I live in Sydney, this is summer-layering - if you're in the Northern Hemisphere and currently experiencing winter, you can add patterned or white tights, cropped sweaters, cape coats and cute beanies, too! Much love, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

DIY - How To Make Your Own Dress

Smock dresses have been popping up everywhere in stores lately, which is fantastic as they have been on my to-make list for quite a while! Why buy when you can DIY? I always thought that they'd be pretty easy to make because the waist is not fitted and they're generally quite loose-fitting, so there is definitely room for error when you make your own :) I was inspired by The White Pepper and Vintage Style Me to make a plaid-pinafore smock-style dress. I'm super happy with how it turned out! I will now attempt to explain how you can make one for yourself. You'll need basic sewing skills to do this, but definitely nothing too fancy - if you can sew a straight-stitch, and have been able to successfully sew a skirt or something similar, you're good to go. By the way, if you want to make a dress like my Hungry Caterpillar Dress, the instructions for making the bodice are essentially the same (though you don't add the extra inches to each measurement, which makes it more fitted), and you add a circle skirt instead, but attach it to the top in the same way. And FYI, my DIY crop-top instructions are coming next! First off, you'll need to take some measurements if you want your dress to fit you (yes, you're making your very own pattern!) Take the following measurements (see photos) and write them down somewhere, adding 2 - 3 inches to each measurement that you take, as the dress is going to be slightly oversized (and it's always good to add a little bit extra, anyway). These are the measurements that you will transfer to your pattern. (note: under-boob and waist measurements go all the way around you!) You then need to translate these measurements onto a piece of paper or newspaper, and cut out a shape similar to the one below. Divide your waist and under-boob measurements by 4, and your shoulder-to-shoulder measurement by 2 first. (The top of the shoulder strap to the top of the neckline, by the way, was 6 inches on my pattern. However, I made the straps a lot shorter in the final dress, so around 3 - 4 inches is probably a good length from shoulder strap to the top of the neckline, no matter what your size, unless you want a higher or a lower neckline than I have on my dress, for which you would alter this accordingly). Also note - if you're bigger than a B-cup, you should probably replace measurement c below with your bust measurement, rather than under-boob measurement. This is a pattern that I have made for a number of different styles of bodice - the line marked at "d" is actually where the bottom of the bodice will be for the smock-style dress, and so this line is where I cut my fabric! You can make the bodice any length you want - I recommend adding a bit extra than you think you will need - you can always make it shorter later! It's also not the worst idea ever to "wear" the pattern before cutting any fabric. This should give you some idea as to whether it will fit you or not! If it looks a bit too big - that's what you're aiming for! Now you just need to pin your pattern onto your fabric, and cut it out. You will need two "back pieces" (just flip the pattern over to make the other side): And one "front piece", which looks like this (simply flip your pattern over once you've cut out one side, and make sure not to cut down the middle): Next step: darts & lining. First, you should make "darts" on your front bodice piece (and it's also a good idea to make the front bodice piece a little bit longer than the back pieces. You can probably see how mine is actually a bit longer than the two back pieces in these photos). I actually forgot to make darts until after I added the lining, which was kind of dodgy of me, so make sure you do it first! To make darts, on the back of the fabric, draw a horizontal line 5-6 inches long, then make it into a triangle. Fold the fabric on the horizontal line, and using a straight stitch, sew along one of the triangle edges. Hopefully, you should end up with something that looks like this: To line the bodice, which I highly recommend that you do, place all the bodice pieces on your lining fabric right side down (fyi, I just used a cheap white synthetic fabric for the lining), pin, and cut it out so that they're both the same size, and, keeping the pins in the fabric, sew them together. Sew all around the edges, except for the bottom edge. Turn it inside out, and you should have something that looks like this: The process is the same for the front bodice piece too - just sew the pieces together all the way around the outside, but leave the bottom bit open. Place both your back-pieces onto the front piece, right sides together...  And sew them together in these two places. Do this for both of the back pieces.  You should now have something that looks like this! Gorgeous! Next: making the skirt Cut a length of fabric that you can wrap around your waist at least one-and-a-half times, and is the length you desire (plus a few inches). Now you will need to gather your skirt fabric. Along the longest edge of the skirt piece, sew straight across the fabric using the longest straight stitch, but do not forward or back stitch at both ends like you normally would. Then, grab only the top stitch or the bottom stitch on one end of the fabric (this site explains how to do this really well), and carefully pull the thread out of the fabric. This will cause the fabric to begin to gather up. Push the gathers along and continue until the entire fabric is gathered. Do this on both ends! Here's a good tutorial on how to gather fabric (I did the cheating method). Also, don't worry if you gather too much - you can always "un-gather" it a little. Anyway, your gathered fabric should look like this: Now you need to attach the skirt to the bodice. Line the two up, and un-gather the skirt so that it is the same length as the unfolded bodice. And then flip the bodice over onto the skirt, pin together, and sew as below: Try the dress on for size. Now, if you've accidentally made a moo moo dress like I did, that's okay - you can make it smaller by repeating the above step, but sew even higher up on the bodice. You'll also have this whole thing going on, where it appears that you've made a hospital gown (stylish, right?): Which just means that it's time for you to add your zipper! The zip needs to be long enough to cover the bodice, and at least some of the length of the skirt - or you will find that you won't be able to get the dress on! The bodice pieces can be placed directly onto the zipper because they have neat edges, but you will need to fold the fabric of your skirt in a little before placing it onto the zipper (I explain how to insert a zipper here; the idea is the same even though that article was for a skirt). First, un-zip your zipper and pin it to one edge of the back of the dress. When you get to the bottom where the zip is, lift the foot and carefully do the zip back up, then continue on sewing. Do the same for the other side. Sewing on a zipper takes quite a bit of practice, so don't stress too much if you stuff it up the first time! Your skirt will now have a slit at the bottom wherever the zipper ended. Sew this together by flipping the dress inside-out, and sewing the two skirt pieces together (right sides together). I couldn't get a good picture of this, but if you've made it up to this step, it should be pretty self-explanatory! Now all you need to do is to hem the bottom of your skirt. To do this, simply fold the skirt's fabric up an inch or so inside the dress, and sew all the way around the skirt. You can fold it over twice for a neater look. And guess what - you're done! If you've got any questions, please leave me a comment and I'll answer as best I can! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr