DIY dresses and wedding stuff

My little sister Sabrina is getting married in a week! and I'm so excited for her. We had a couple showers for her the past few weeks. I didnt take any pictures of us but I did make her this "cake" out of towels and washcloths. http://www.thinkwedding.com/Art-Wedding_Towel_Cake.htm

We went over to my grandma's house afterwards. We get to keep some of her jewelry and clothes since she passed away. She was always fashionable and I feel lucky to keep some of these things for me to remember her. She always had lots of crazy big glasses! LOL

We are also making dresses for the nieces (our daughters) for Tim and Sab's wedding. There will be 6 cute girly girls. This is how they turned out-

I should have taken pictures as we went along but here is a try at a tutorial for these dresses-

Supplies for dress:

• White shirt (or onsie) from Down east, Carters or anywhere
• Orange sparkly satin for skirt and rosettes- measure from hip to knee plus 2 inches for casing [20"] plus 1" strip per small rosette on skirt (6-12) and 1 1/2 " for rosette on shirt
• 6" x 59" Plain orange satin for sash
• 20" Orange lining
• 2 yards Orange sparkly tulle (sew along bottom of lining and have it poke out 2-4" from satin)
• Orange thread
• Elastic band for the waist (1" smaller than waist)
• Metal pin brack (for brooch) to clip rosette on shirt
• Felt

First we measured our girls and cut the material accordingly. We serged the top of the lining and sparkly satin together, then we surged the bottom of the satin. Sew a casing along the top big enough to thread the elastic band through with a safety pin. Tuck the bottom and sew a hem on the satin. Cut the lining so that it is about 2" shorter than the satin.

Sew two strips of tulle with a wide zig zag stitch along one edge. Do not back stitch this part! Tie one end off and pull one of thead and gather the tulle to your liking. We ended up putting one gathered tulle in the front and a second in the back to make it look more full. Do a little trimming if the pieces are too long or uneven. 

For the rosettes on the skirt we cut 1" strips that we about 9" long. Tie a not in one end and then roll them up sometimes turning the material as twisting around. We didnt glue or sew anything and just lay it on the skirt and sew the rosette right onto the skirt. My sister glued the rosettes with the hot glue gun and then glued them onto the skirt.

For the big rosette on the shirt and headband you need to cut 1-1.5" strip that is about 2 feet long. Sew zig zag stitch along edge and then pull (gather). Then cut a piece of felt the size you'd like the rosette and hot glue (starting with the outside) and then go around the felt gluing along the way until you get the rosette on the until the center. Glue the metal pin on the back and pin it to your shirt.    

We kind of used this as inspiration for hte rosettes http://www.happytogethercreates.com/2011/03/ruffled-rosette-belt-and-top-tutorial.html.

and these are the headband supplies:

• satin material
• netting
• white rosette material
• felt
• headband

And... the dress is done! and on adorable on my baby girl.