Janel Was Here

Tag: girls clothing

  • Child Size Spiral Dress

    Child Size Spiral Dress

    Ruffles! A huge, swirly overload of fluttering spiral. How to do this? We need volume of fabric.

    As usual, I started moderate before going more extreme.  The first attempt with a 4″ curved gore produced a conservative A-line skirt shape.

    Spiral skirt made from curved gores in alternating colors
    Spiral gores made into a jumper dress

    Simple. Just add more stripes. The big difference was gathering the gores in order to fit more of them.

    View from the ceiling of full circle spiral swirl dress, modeled by a white teddy bear.

    The teddy bear was a gift from a kind friend at a time when I was lonely. Mr. Bear is also very useful for a model, in lieu of baby girls.

    Pink, purple and floral alternating striped sleeveless dress with vast spiral skirt

    I made up this test model then remembered a family at church who have such a vast number of granddaughters that I don’t even need to worry about size. Just give it to them, it’ll fit somebody.

    And it did! So I made them another one.

    Green and yellow sunflower sleeveless spiral dress for a young girl
    Flowing spiral circle skirt jumper dress being modeled by a white teddy bear

    The bodice needed more coverage so I made the armholes smaller and the neckline higher, and added a button at the back of the neck.

    Here is the free child’s basic sleeveless bodice pattern as a pdf for printing at home. Be sure to print at 100% rather than “fit to page”.

    And here’s the four-inch skirt piece.

    You’ll need to sew three of these C-shaped pieces together for each gore for smaller sizes, or four for larger sizes. It takes 14 – 16 gores for smaller sizes or 18 or more for larger sizes. The number can be flexible, you can add more gores depending on how many different colors you want to combine.

    Here’s a size 8 version of this with four pieces per gore, and a very cool back-and-forth pattern that was accidental.  I discovered I’d sewn two of the gores backwards from what they should be (the blue and pink positions reversed) at about the same time I realized I hadn’t added enough gores to compensate for the larger size. So instead of picking it out, we added the red stripe in between, and I think the red stripe is what really makes this one so stunning.

    Spiral swirl skirt laid out before sewing together

    Here’s the recipient in full twirl.

    Instructions

    Apr 2023. Oh, dear. People are asking for instructions and I’m thinking “What’s wrong with the instructions?” Maybe the fact that there aren’t any. Okay. Sorry about that.

    But now, it’s already happened, I’ve left civilization for the dark side of the moon! Okay, a place without internet. I suppose that’s not so unusual (and maybe you wouldn’t believe it, but I am old enough to remember back when there wasn’t an internet) but without it, and without Illustrator on my desktop or my printer, I can’t do much.

    Just noticed the PDF has a dumb mistake, and I can’t correct it from here. You don’t cut both front and back on the fold, of course, or how would you sew it?

    Cut one front piece on the fold and two back pieces not on fold, and the same from lining material. There’s some pics of how to put a jumper together here, https://www.janelwashere.com/jumper-dress-pattern-for-women/

    Sew the backs to the fronts at shoulder seams, both fabric and lining. Lay them on top of each other “pretty sides together” (as the old 90’s Barbie Fashion Designer program put it) and stitch around the armholes and neckline, then turn inside out. On the newer version, which is more modest like a dress rather than a jumper, the neckline won’t be large enough to pull over a child’s head, so you’ll need an opening at the back with a closure like a button or something. Or cut the neckline larger like the early test and wear a top beneath.

    How to choose a size. Honestly, just print the pattern and lay it on top of a dress that fits the child. Allow for seams and then make it even bigger to be on the safe side. Comparing patterns put out by companies, the differences are startling. I went by an industry measurement chart I found somewhere. Remember, too BIG is easier to fix 🙂

    Now for the number of gores for the skirt. Measure how large the waist seam will be and do math to see how many gores you can cram in there. With a 4″ gore you’ll get 3.5″ (or less) per gore. Add plenty of gores, ideally too many, per my dad: “If some’s good, a lot’s better, and too much is just right.” We’re going for ruffles here. You probably want an even number or a multiple of three to make a repeating pattern. You can always sew half your gores together and then compare with the bodice to see if it’s going to be as ruffly as you want, then, if necessary, add another color on each side before attaching, like I did with the red stripe.

    Info on sewing spiral skirts is here: https://www.janelwashere.com/spiral-skirts-and-dresses/

    Good luck, guys. Let me know how it goes. I can get my email, I’m not really on the dark side of the moon, and I love getting notes about sewing. Ask away and I can answer you if I stand up on the top of the hill in a certain spot.

  • Spiral Skirts and Dresses

    Spiral Skirts and Dresses

    All patterns are Adobe pdf for free download and printing. They print out onto sheets of 8.5 x 11 printer paper which you tape together then cut out. Be sure they print out at 100% size not “scale to fit” the paper.

    The skirts can be made any size you need by using whatever number of gores it takes to get the waistband the size you want. A gore that’s 6″ across the top will come out about 5.5″ (it’s easier to use narrow seams when you’re matching two contrary curves) so if you need the top of the skirt before gathering to be 44″ you’d use eight gores. If you use elastic, allow enough width to pull up over the hips.

    (A “gore” is one of the lengthwise strips of a skirt. An eight-gore skirt has eight vertical pieces with seam lines from waist to hem.)

    Most of this material is from 2009. The more recent skirts and dresses are new posts.

    Ruffled swirly skirts have always been my thing. When I was little I always wanted my dresses to have big skirts to twirl.

    I found a couple excellent tutorials (links now defunct) on how to draft your own spiral skirt pattern piece, but only to produce an A line result. I wanted something closer to full circle, like the Redondo Farbenmix but without layers. Something simple and mathematically circular, like a barber pole or candy cane, except flaring.

    My first attempt was complicated.

    Then, instead of using a grid to enlarge, I thought of using Adobe Illustrator. It’s a great improvement over pencil and string! The instructions said to use string to make sure both sides are the same length. I don’t need to, Illustrator can tell me if the two line segments are the same length! 

    Then I can tile the pages, print a few lines on a bunch of sheets of typing paper, a moment to put the puzzle together and there we are.

    This is SO FUN. My delight level is right off the chart.

    I had decided on a 6″ top for each skirt panel. Allowing 1/2 inch for the seams (1/4″ from both sides), that comes out 5″ each panel. I want a pull-on elastic waist, so I basically use the hip measurement for the top width of the skirt. By the time it gets down to the hips, it will be wider. Hence:

    7 panels x 5″ = 35″ top tier
    8 panels x 5″ = 40″ top tier
    Etc.

    I had gotten as far as taping the pages together to make the pattern when I realized 1) this is going to waste huge amounts of fabric and 2) it’s more of a gentle curve like the major brand commercial patterns, which are nice but also not what I had in mind.

    I might as well share that pattern piece I made in case someone else wants it. Maybe it’s just what you had in mind. Here it is and if you use it, I’d love to see a picture —

    Spiral Skirt 1

    A gently-curved, conservative swirler shape.

    Here’s the file for download with 6″ tops to the pieces for making a skirt, or Here it is with an 8″ top which works with the raglan bodice you’ll see in a moment to make into a dress– the raglan top pieces are each 8″ at the waist.

    Here’s the test dress I made with it. One photo it’s inside out and I’ve highlighted the seams, otherwise they’re too hard to see.

    I was absolutely in the Library of Congress for one of those pictures, not my regular sewing room with my junk behind me like the other two.

    Fabric requirement for this dress would be 4 and 2/3 yards– in theory according to Illustrator!
    See how I figure it out in IL? I fit the pieces into a 44″ wide box and see how long the box needs to be! It says it’s 163 inches. For a two-color arrangement it would be 89″ for the color that the sleeves are made of, and 73″ of the second color.

    Spiral Skirt 2

    Trying for more RUFFLES. I attempted a single hand-drawn shape from top to tip, then “Illustrated” it.

    Now we’re getting warmer.

    The pink skirt was made with the first draft wobbly hand-drawn pattern piece. The red one was the same shape but perfect lines made in AI. The red one’s inside-out so you can see the seams.

    It comes out quite short and very twirly, only 20-22″ long (uneven hemline) including the waistline casing. So that would work for little girls. Each gore is cut in one piece and requires a 25″ x 23″ piece of fabric.

    Here’s the pattern shape

    Spiral Skirt 3

    I went back and took another look at the second link’s way. The lady on Craftster (link doesn’t work any more) provided an image of her pattern piece, but I thought I’d try it more nicely Illustratorily rounded, so I took some circles and made this:

    This is for a girl size and the finished length is 25″ long. My daughter loved it!

    HERE is the printable pattern (6 inch top)

    I received a serger as a gift. I had never had one or even seen one in use, so there was a certain fear factor about threading it. Twenty minutes of studying the book (do you know you have to thread these things with long tweezers??) and there we go.

    What did I ever do without it? Fear turns to glee and the spiral has a hem.

    Here are photos sent in by reader Julie, who says, “I added a 6″ strip at the top to make it longer, and lined it. Looks great! I used scraps of rayon, georgette, and one of those big challis scarves that was popular in the 80s. Thanks so very much for posting the patterns; I’ve been wanting one of these for many years!!”

    Thank you to Julie for sending pictures of her project!

    Spiral Skirt 4 / Dress

    Skirt shape from basic segments of a circle, with lots of sections to string together before sewing the gores up.

    I tried using four sections and one tip per gore. Adding more sections makes it longer but due to the spiral design, the extra fabric gets absorbed into ruffliness and doesn’t add as much to the length as you might expect.

    My first try came out beautiful, but only 24″ long! (Oh and here’s skirt 4 with the 6″ wide gores)

    Then inspiration went another way.

    Long ago I came across a spiral dress, like princess seams but given a spin. I was fascinated with that diagonal effect. “How to make one of those?” became something to think about before falling asleep.

    I used the top of my peasant dress pattern cut into thirds, and here’s that file

    I adjusted those sections to all be 8″ then made Skirt 4 to have 8″ wide sections to match

    To make one like this you need to print both files. I’d call it size medium. I’m 38-30-42 and you can see how it fits on me. Skirt comes out an uneven 27″ long, using three top sections and one point per skirt gore.

    To sew, start by stitching the six sections to make the front and back bodice and the sleeves together at the top, then gather them and attach to the yoke like any sensible raglan top.

    Once the top part is finished, then join a skirt gore to each section at the waistline. It hangs down very long at that point! Then sew the gores together down to the hem.

    Combi – Skirt 3 and 4

    The beautiful blue and green skirt from above needed to be salvaged.

    At 24″ long, it’s simply too short for me. If only someone’s little daughter needed a ruffle skirt. If only all those seams would unpick themselves! After some thought, I realized I have a secret weapon. The little buddy would be glad to do it for five bucks.

    child labor – little guy picking out half a mile of seams

    Once I had the gores apart, I added a panel each from skirt 3, which is a gentler curve. Then put it all together again and it was perfect. I’m glad I did because I really like these colors!

    SUMMARY of how to make this exact skirt– each gore is put together using ONE section from skirt 3, then FIVE sections from skirt 4 with the 6″ wide option, finished with the tip.

    Remember you can cut out some of the sections together if you have plenty of fabric.