The Modern Artist {Tutorial of sorts}

 You know how they say time flies when you are having fun? Well it also flies when you are not... Ha! I am only kidding we have been having fun, and only a little hair pulling :) The kids were on Spring break, but we were super smart and planned our Spring break trip for later this month... all this means is the kids were home all day and we had nothing to do. I thought they would play and the baby would sleep with out being woken up to make school runs and I would get a lot of sewing in, I was wrong. We had a birthday to celebrate, and the kids wanted to be constantly entertained. So that's what we did instead. It really wasn't all bad but I was pretty glad to have school start back up. Now I don't have to hear "I'm bored" all day. I also have time to share some stuff. Like a nice little mini tutorial for the Modern Artist dress.

Remember I said I was enjoying "free sewing" for Project run and play? Yeah this means I didn't stop to take many step by step tutorial pictures. However, I do have some for the peplum, and I can walk you through the rest.

So for the dress in general I drafted the whole thing up fresh because I wanted that "perfect fit" So since Abbey is between sizes for patterns right now so I usually have to take in some areas and let out others anyway. If you want a pattern the dress is basically the bodice from this free pattern And the peplum style from The Claire (coming soon in larger sizes but you can snag the old pattern for $5.00)

 So for the peplum. I cut out a bunch of random sizes of squares and rectangles in all the colors I wanted to use. I think a bunch of neon and neutral colors would look amazing but I tried to stay as close to the Mondrian art but using fresh and current versions of those colors, like lime green and magenta pink. I cut them out and then laid out the design I wanted in a rectangle.

 Then I sewed each section together.

 And then sewed all of those sections together so it was one big piece. Over all I wanted the piece to be the length of the peplum I desired, and the width was the hip measurement X 1.5. (I divided that by two so I made a front and back)

Then I used black twill tape and sewed it down on both sides covering every seam. I did the cross sections first so the twill tape from top to bottom would cover the raw edges. Then I sewed the side edges together so it was one large skirt. I finished the bottom edge with bias tape.

I added the peplum at the waist between the skirt and bodice. I added pleats to fit the peplum to the waist.

 The bodice is fully lined just like this pattern, only I used an exposed zipper instead. I also added bubble sleeves, which I will hopefully be putting together a tutorial for here soon, they are fun.

The collar is bias tape, I used the smallest bias tape I could and finished the neckline with it and then using disappearing ink I traced a collar design on and then sewed the bias tape down following the line. 

The leggings are made following this tutorial, only I did end up just hemming the leg instead of adding the cuff...

The leggings are made from a very thin and stretchy lycra knit, The dress is made from a stretch poplin, the peplum is made from kona cottons and twill tape.

Later this week I have a tutorial of sorts for the Chevron Dress.