Get your straps and sandwich them in the top strip. I pinned my strips to the back of the dress and then put on the dress & pinned them in the front to make sure I covered my bra strap.
Now, get your trim for the front and sandwich it in the 3" space you left open on the straps.
Sew close to the folded edge
and when you get to this point, pivot your sewing to sew the strap closed.
Then turn your needle around and sew back along your stitching line. ::Sorry, I forgot to take a picture doing this on the left strap (the one in the pics above), so just pretend this is me sewing the same strap::
Now your straps are on and the top strip is sewn closed, so all we need to do is add the elastic waistband!
Measure yourself from your knees to your waistline. My length is 20". Get your Frixion pen (they don't pay me to say that [though I'll take an endorsement!], but it's really the most awesome marking tool I've ever used), and mark the dress at 20".
Cut a piece of 1/4" elastic the same size as your waistline measurement and sew it closed.
Then, to make sure the dress is evenly gathered, mark the dress and elastic like so. Lay out your dress like the below picture. The back seam is equidistant front middle of the dress.
Mark the front middle.
Now lay your dress, lining up your new middle marking with the back seam so that the dress sides are equidistant from each other.
Mark the sides.
And then you have four markings.
Do the same with the elastic. I pin it when I mark the sides because elastic is wily!
Now line up the elastic seam with the back seam of your dress.
And line up all the other markings.
Then, using your widest zig zag setting, sew the elastic to the dress, stretching as you go.
And you're all done!
As always, please email me or leave a comment if you have any questions. I hope you guys like this and use this tutorial. I think this would be just adorable in any number of fabric combos, but I love it in white muslin because it's A) cheap, and B) so easy breezy and cool. Perfect for summer!!
xoxo,
