"D" is for Dress

Are you keeping track? The A-to-Z Challenge is now up to D...

...and D is for...Dress!

That's right...it's the second BSU themed project of the A-to-Z Challenge. I told you we love Boise State around here.


I was on a bit of a tulle kick a while back, so I was working with a lot of it. I got it in my head that I needed to make some skirts with tulle underskirts. The idea developed from there. With two small nieces at the time (I'm now up to three nieces and an awesome nephew), I thought it might be a cute little outfit for them to wear.

These were a little challenging to make, but it was still fun. It's one of those projects where I'd probably get better at it over time.

I started with the skirt portion. I had each girl's mom measure their waists for me. That helped me make my starting pattern. I used a width just slightly larger (~2-3") than their measurements (use 1/2 of the total waist measurement) to allow for some wiggle room and growth, and then fanned it out to a trapezoid. Easy pattern.

I doubled over the fabric and cut out my pattern, using the fold as one of the edges so that I would only have one seam. I folded the bottom up about 1/2", pinned, and sewed the hem for the bottom of the skirt.

For the top, I folded a little larger to accommodate my elastic, and sewed the top, leaving the last 2" of fabric unsewn to let me insert the elastic later.

I then sewed the other side edges together to form the basic shape of the skirt. (In hindsight, it would've been easier if I waited to sew the edges together until after I put the elastic through. Oh well...it still worked.)

I measured out enough elastic to match the girls' current measurements.

I then attached a safety pin to one end and threaded it through the opening in my top seam. I pulled it all the way around so that the two edges were side by side.

I then sewed the two edges of the elastic together and sewed the top seam closed.

Then it was time to make the tulle edge of the skirt. I decided on just the tulle edging so that the underside of the skirt wouldn't be scratchy to their legs or require a slip. Sometimes less is more.

I folded the tulle over on itself about 3-4 times. I then ran it through my sewing machine at 2" intervals. I used a basting stitch to give it a little bit of a ruffle.

I cut this into strips...

...and sewed the strips together to form a nice long chain of tulle.

Pin the tulle around the edge of the skirt. Sew and cut.

Skirt portion finished!

Then it was time for the top half. I bought a couple of plain white shirts to go with the skirts. I washed them to get all of the shrinking out of the way and then chopped a little bit of the bottom off (about 1 1/2") so that the top wouldn't be bunchy in the torso.

I flipped the shirt inside out and pinned it to the inside out skirt. Then I sewed the two pieces together.

For a finishing touch, I added a BSU iron on logo to the center of the shirt.

I made one short sleeve and one long sleeve simply because that was what I could find in their sizes. For some reason, plain white t-shirts were really hard to find at that point. I just have that kind of luck...

But now the girls are all set for game days! Go Broncos!

Thanks to all of you stopping by from A-to-Z Challenge! I love new readers. Make sure to leave me a comment below so that I can return the favor by visiting you.