Little Girl Jumper

So I was getting out my daughters 24 month clothing and discovered that I had no dresses.  A must for a little princess so I dug into my sewing closet and found this really cute fabric and jumper pattern. By the way this is a lined bodice.  All seams are sewn on 5/8 in unless it says otherwise.

This is the bodice front and back lined up.

Step 1: Sew the shoulder seams together. On both the lining and the actual bodice.

Step 2: Sew the lining to the bodice. Sew around the neck and arm holes.  Clip curves. 

Step 3: Open up the lining from the bodice.  Sew the side seams together .  

Step 4: Sew the center back of the lining and bodice together.  Clip corner.  Turn right side out. Point out corner.  Iron everything down so you get nice clean seams.

Step 5: Sew side seams of skirt together and sew skirt center back together.  Remember to serge/pink/zig zag all the raw edge seams so your skirt won't fray away in the wash (not necessary on bodice as all seams are enclosed).  Also leave the top few inches of the skirt center back open for the zipper. This is why I serged each side of this seam separately and not together as I did on the side seams. 

Step 6: Sew gather stitches along top of the skirt.  To sew gather stitches use a 5 stitch length (or the longest on your machine) and sew 2 rows of stitches.  One at 6/8 in and one at 4/8 in or (1/2).  I stop and restart at every seam and also in the center of the skirt front.  I do this so there is less chance of the gather stitches breaking and ruining all the gathering you were doing.  

Step 7:  Gather the skirt to fit the bodice.  Pin the skirt to the bodice matching up at every seam and at the center of the front (skirt and bodice).  Then you can gather in between all the pins to be even and fit.  To gather take either the needle threads or the bobbin threads and GENTLY pull. Tip: for every section you gather take the end you are not pulling and wrap around a pin so your gathers don't fall off the other end.  Pin as you get each section gathered to your liking.  When you finish gathering a section wrap the pulled threads around a pin.

Step 8:  Sew the skirt to the bodice (not the lining or vice a versa depending on which one you choose) . 

Step 9: Iron the bottom of the lining (or the bodice which ever one is not sewn to the skirt) up 5/8 in(the amount you sewed the bodice to the lining). Then pin it to the skirt (this should be the opposite side from which you sewed before, thereby enclosing the waist seam).  When you go to sew the seam you have a few options.  If this is the front of the dress I would recommend either sewing 1/8 in from the edge or hand sewing so it is invisible.  If you are just sewing the lining to the skirt then you can hand sew it so it will be invisible or you can do what I did (you will notice on this blog that I avoid hand sewing at all costs).  I used the "stitch in the ditch method".  I put on a blind hem foot and leave my needle in the middle.  Then I sew from the front right up against the other seam, this makes the stitching from the front invisible but you risk not catching the back in all the places and it can look a little sloppy on the inside.  

Step 10:  Put in the zipper.  Unzip the zipper and pin one side so the fold lines up right against the teeth or a little over (whatever you want).  Using your zipper foot (which requires you to move your needle, I usually move it closer to the needle) sew straight down one side.  Zip up the zipper and pin the other side of back so it matches up with the other side of the back.  I start from the the previous side (the end of the zipper) and sew across to the other side and then sew straight up the other side. Tip: when you get close to the pull of the zipper, put your needle in the fabric lift the presser foot and move the pull by either zipping the zipper up or down (whichever gets it out of your way for the longest time).


Step 11: Hem the dress.  (sorry I spaced a picture here)  I typically try the dress on the individual and fold up where I want it on a side seam.  Then I take the dress off measure how much I folded it up, fold it up that amount all the way around.  With her dress I did a size bigger than she actually is so she can "grow into" the dress.  So I hemmed it up 4 inches.  I like doing a "rolled hem".  Since the hem needed to go up 4 inches I fold/iron it up 2 inches all the way around then I fold/iron that over again and then sew it down usually 1/4 in from the top fold.

Here is my princess in all her glory with her little dress on.  She was being a difficult model that is why in the second picture she has a graham cracker in her hand.  

Here she is full length.  My favorite thing is how long this dress is.  That is a problem I have with a lot of little girl dresses is they are all knee length or higher.  I wanted a long dress (especially since winter is around the corner) and this can easily be layered with a long sleeved blouse.