Wee Lap Tee Dress with Flutter Sleeves
The theme for her birthday was pineapples and flamingos. I knew right away where I wanted to get my fabric - Mel - from Purpleseamtress Fabric. If haven't had the pleasure of purchasing fabric from Mel - you are missing out on an experience. She always helps me coordinate my fabrics and my fabric is cross country in about 5 minutes. (Ok - more like 2 days - but still)
Once I had my fabric I knew I wanted to make a wee lap tee - but with flutter sleeves and a circle skirt. Here's a tutorial on how I adapted the pattern.
In general whenever I am sewing a set pattern or one I am altering I like to cut out all the pieces first. So in the picture above you can see the two navy pieces are the front and back from the original Wee Lap Tee pattern. The top two rectangles are the front and back neckband also from the original Wee Lap Tee pattern. The two matching sleeves at the bottom are my version of a flutter sleeve and then a standard circle skirt.
The Flutter Sleeve
Ok I admit I did not use a pattern for the flutter sleeve and it was a bit of trial and error. The first thing I did was cut a rectangle on the fold twice as long as the width of the bottom of the short sleeve from the original Wee Lap Tee pattern. If you weren't cutting on the fold it would be 4 times longer than the original. Then I just eyeballed a half-moon shape from the rectangle. You will need to cut two of those if you want two sleeves of course.
Once I had my half-moon shaped piece I went ahead and tucked the edge under and topstitched to hem the outer edge of the sleeves.
Once I hemmed the edge I basted (used a the longest straight stitch on my machine) the bottom edge of both sleeves. Pull the bottom edge to gather each sleeve.
From here I went ahead and assembled the shirt according to pattern directions up until the sleeve step. Then I used the same idea of adding a sleeve, but with my new flutter sleeve. I put right sides together, adjusted my gathers so the length of the sleeve matched the length of the arm scythe, and serged the sleeve to the shirt.
Here's what it looks like flipped the right way, but before side seams are sewed up. Go ahead and do the same thing again on the other side.
Once your skirt is cut out, you flip the skirt upside down and inside out and pin it right sides together to the bodice. In this picture the bodice is upside down. You shouldn't have to stretch the skirt OR bodice when you pin. Once you have the two pieces together - serge.
This is what you should have so far. Then you just need to hem up the bottom. I added a vinyl flamingo as a finishing touch - but you could totally leave it plain or use a coordinating print fabric. Again, I left the bodice long, so for a different look you would just have cut off more than 1 1/2" from the banded bottom line on the original pattern.
Here's what it looks like flipped the right way, but before side seams are sewed up. Go ahead and do the same thing again on the other side.
Next it's time for side seams. For this I just again followed the directions from the original pattern. Put right sides together and serge it up the sides. Flip it the right way and you have a cute flutter sleeve top!
Make it a Dress!
Here is where you will need to make some decisions about what kind of dress you want to have. I wanted to put a flamingo on the front of the dress using vinyl so I knew I need more bodice instead of having the skirt come up higher in an empire style. I went ahead and cut the original front and back pieces on the banded cut line and then I removed 1 1/2" from around the bottom. That wasn't enough once I tried it on - so you really need to take off 3 - 3 1/2" based on the waist height.
To make the circle skirt, there are a ton of free patterns out there. I measured the circumference of the bottom of the bodice (shirt) I just made and entered that into the Omni Circle Skirt Calculator. For a 12 months size my circle radius was 2 1/2". I decided to make the skirt 8" long from there. I used the double fold method of making a circle skirt. You can check out my tutorial for cutting out a circle skirt here.
Once your skirt is cut out, you flip the skirt upside down and inside out and pin it right sides together to the bodice. In this picture the bodice is upside down. You shouldn't have to stretch the skirt OR bodice when you pin. Once you have the two pieces together - serge.
This is what you should have so far. Then you just need to hem up the bottom. I added a vinyl flamingo as a finishing touch - but you could totally leave it plain or use a coordinating print fabric. Again, I left the bodice long, so for a different look you would just have cut off more than 1 1/2" from the banded bottom line on the original pattern.
Here's my finished product!
And of course I had to make a jumbo scrunchie for Mama from Made for Mermaids!
I hope you enjoyed my tutorial. Please feel free to message me if you have any questions and don't forget to check us out on etsy and Facebook!
