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There is a box, in the corner of my sewing
room.
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It is a box whose contents have not seen the
light of day for many a month.
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Many crafters will be familiar with this box,
in all of its forms:
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There’s the ever-growing amorphous lump
that lies underneath your desk…
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The monster underneath your bed…
The stuff you vacuum-packed in a fit of organization
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and stuffed into your garage in the hopes
that you’d never have to deal with it again…
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This, my friends, is the UNFINISHED SEWING PILE.
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So, this is the item that I pulled out of
the box and that I’m going to work on for
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this episode.
This is a really lovely strapless blue gingham
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dress. The problem, however, is the strapless
part.
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When I attempt to wear it, it falls down!
So, I want to add straps – more specifically,
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tie-up halter-neck straps!
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The first thing that I do is to measure roughly
how wide I want the straps to be at the top
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of the sweetheart neckline. I want them to
be about 3 inches wide, and then taper off
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and get thinner as the straps reach my shoulder.
I want most of the strap to only be 1.5 inches
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wide. And I also need excess length at the
back so that the straps can be tied up, and
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the straps should also curve a little bit
so that they will sit flat around my neck.
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Awesome. So, I put all that down onto a piece
of newspaper and here’s my pattern!
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The fabric that I’m using for the straps
is stretchy white jersey.
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I fold it over so that there is two layers,
so that I can cut out 2 matching pieces at once.
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I place my pattern onto the fabric, pin it
on, and cut around the paper.
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Then, I flip the pattern over and I repeat this.
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So, I’ve ended up with 4 pieces of fabric,
each pair sandwiched together like this. And,
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I’m going to then sew them together just
like this. I’m making sure that I leave
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a gap in my stitching at both the top and
the bottom.
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To sew them together, I’m using a zig-zag
stitch because I’m working with stretchy
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fabric. I’m also using a walking foot attachment
to help the seam lay flat.
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After I’ve sewn the two pieces together,
it gives me this tube thing. So I stick a
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safety pin in one end of the tube to help
me turn it inside out, and I turn the tube
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all the way around, so that the seams are
now on the inside of the tube.
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Then, I simply sew the gaps closed by sewing
over the top of them.
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For this smaller end,that I left completely open, I fold the excessfabric inside it about half an inch and then
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sew over the top.
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Once I’ve done that, I attach the straps
to the dress where I want them to sit, pin
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them on, and sew carefully over the top here,
using a really small straight stitch.
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Then, I also decide that I want to replace
the buttons with something a little bit cuter.
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Now, I have a LOT of cute buttons, and it’s
honestly really hard making a choice, but
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in the end I go for something a bit more subtle
than cat or heart buttons – I got these
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white buttons are from my grandma, and I think that they’ll give the dress a more vintage, pin-up feel.
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I carefully cut off the old buttons, and,
using a needle and a thread in matching colour
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to the buttons, I sew the buttons on, using
the small holes left in the fabric from the
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buttons I just removed to know where to place these new ones.
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To sew these buttons on, I sew up through
the back of the dress through one hole of
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the button and back down through the other hole.
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I repeat this a couple of times,
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then, with the thread at the back of the dress I
tie a knot, and cut off the excess thread.
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And here is my new and improved dress!
I think that the new halter straps go really
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well with the dress and it also has the added
bonus of not falling off when I try to wear
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it! So, that’s good!
Here’s the tie-up straps in action – 10
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inches extra seemed to be about the perfect
length to allow me to tie a messy bow at the back.
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And - yeah! There we have it! Thanks for watching,
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and I’ll see you all next time!