LLK Sewalong- Day 5 Retro Glam Skirt

Hello again friends!

It's our final day of the Little Lizard King sewalong featuring the Retro Glam skirt! We've already picked out our fabrics, cut out the pattern pieces, constructed the waistband and assembled the skirt. Now it's time to put it all together! 

Take your skirt and turn it inside out. With the waistband right side out, position the front of the waistband between four triangles. This will ensure the front of your Retro Glam skirt is centered. Pin to secure and continue pinning the raw edged of the waistband to the raw edges of the skirt. Sew the two pieces together with a 1/2 seam allowance and serge or zig zag to finish. 

Press the seams towards the waistband, flip your skirt right side out and topstitch. 

I also added a button for decoration....which my 10 month old likes to attempt to pull off. 

If you used buttonhole elastic, we have two more steps. Sew two buttons on, one between each side seam and button hole on the back waistband. 

Finally, thread your elastic through the two button holes and secure by looping one of the buttonholes around the button. 

Your Little Lizard King Retro Glam skirt is complete!! Hooray! Great job sewalong-ers!

It's time to share your finished Retro Glam skirts in the LLK Cafe. You can also follow Little Lizard King on Instagram and Twitter. Make sure to use the hashtag #LLKRetroGlam. We'll be on the lookout for your photo because.......drumroll please..... there are PRIZES!!!! Thats's right! Three lucky skirts will be chosen at LLK Fav, Fan Fav and Participation Winnner! 

It has been such a joy to host the Little Lizard King Retro Glam skirt sewalong! I hope you learned something new, enjoyed a few laughs and now have a beautiful new skirt. 

Before I close, here is my finished skirt:

Until next time! Xoxo,

Kimberlee

Harper Creek Boutique Blog

Harper Creek Boutique Facebook Page 

LLK Sewalong- Day 4 Retro Glam Skirt

Hi friends,

Welcome back to day 4 of the sewalong featuring the Little Lizard King Retro Glam Skirt! Let's recap!

On day 1, we purchased and printed out the pattern. The best part of the day was picking out our materials! 

On day 2, we cut out our fabric and listened to some sweet jams while we worked. 

On day 3, we constructed the waistband and (optional) sashes. 

Now, it's time to sew together the skirt pieces. Grab your 10 scallops and 10 triangles. It is important to note which end the top of the pattern piece. 

Take one triangle piece and one scallop piece. Place the pieces right side together and sew along one edge. It is SUPER important to keep the 1/2" seam allowance! Sew from the bottom edge to the top (waistband) edge.

Place this joined pair aside and continue doing this until you have 10 pairs. 

Serge or zig zag finish the seams. Press the seams towards the triangle. 

Take two pieces and lay the right sides together. Again, sew from the bottom hem to the top hemline. 

Your stitches should form an "X" at the top of the skirt. Continue this until all pieces have been connected.

Take a minute to make sure that your triangles come to a triangle point at the bottom and that your scallops come to a triangle point at the top. If you did not follow the seam allowance correctly, your pieces will not come to a point. This will mean that your skirt will be too wide for the waistband. Of course, I am not speaking from experience! My first Retro Glam Skirt definitely fit perfectly into my waistband because I took special note of the 1/2" seam allowance and by no means did a 1/4" seam allowance. 

Serge or zig zig the new hems you made. Press these towards the scallops so all the hems are facing the same direction. 

The last thing we are going to do today is to hem the bottom and add that ADORABLE rick rack. Serge or zig zag along the bottom hem. 

Now why would I want just one color of rick rack when I could have two?! I weaved my rick rack like this:

Sew the rick rack to the RIGHT side of your fabric. The deeper the curve that you sew, the deeper the scallop. 

Flip the rick rack (or other trim) to the wrong side of the fabric and topstitch. 

And that's it for today! We now have an assembled skirt and an assembled waistband. If you're like me, you can hardly wait for tomorrow!

Don't forget to share your questions and progress at the LLK Cafe! Our hash tag for this sewalong is #LLKRetroGlam. We'd love for you to use this when you share photos!

Sewalong for now!

Kimberlee 

Harper Creek Boutique Blog

Harper Creek Boutique Facebook Page 

LLK Sewalong- Day 3 Retro Glam Skirt

Hello again!

To those of you who are just joining us, welcome! We are on Day 3 of the sewalong for the Little Lizard King Retro Glam Skirt. You'll need to catch up by following day 1 and day 2. If you have any questions, hop on over to the LLK Cafe where you can ask questions, share pictures and have a good 'ole time with us!

Are you ready to put the petal to the metal? It's finally time to turn on our sewing machines! Hooray! Today we will be sewing up the waistband front, waistband back and side sashes. 

Let's get started! Go ahead and sew the waistband sashes by folding each piece in half lengthwise with rights sides together. Sew the end of the sash at a diagonal/curve. 

The most important part of making the waistband sashes is clipping the corners before you turn it right side out. This will help the corners lay flat and make perfect angles. 

Use your favorite turning tool to flip the sashes right side out. Press and topstitch. 

Take your two waistband pieces and two interfacing pieces to the ironing board. Iron the interfacing on the wrong side of the fabric, leaving 1/2" of fabric around the border without interfacing. 

Fold the waistband pieces in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press. 

You now have 2 options: use/make buttonhole elastic to allow for an adjustable waistband or sew in the elastic. I opted to make the buttonhole elastic as this was something I had never attempted, and why not use this opportunity to learn something new!  And let me tell you, it's SO easy! I'll be explaining how to do option 1, so for those of you that chose option 2, follow along with the instructions in your pattern. 

First, I cut 12" of knit (super important!) elastic for the size 12-18 months Retro Glam skirt. I marked four places along the elastic where I wanted to make buttonholes. To decide where to mark the buttonholes, I used the cutting chart for the sewn in elastic as my guide. For the 12-18 months size, that was 8 inches. I marked two buttonholes so that my elastic would be 7 1/2" long between the two holes. (I knew that  8" was the average size elastic a 12-18 month old needed. I made buttonholes a 1/2" smaller and 1/2" bigger to provide maximum versatility in regards to waistband sizing.  

You'll need to make the buttonholes slightly smaller than the two buttons you're using as the elastic will stretch. Make the buttonholes and then zig zag the ends of the elastic to prevent fraying. Fold the zig zagged ends under and stitch. You can set this piece aside for now. 

Continuing on with the buttonhole elastic method, grab your back waistband piece. Unfold the piece and lay it down right side up. We need to make two buttonholes 1/8" wider than our elastic so the elastic can slide easily through the buttonholes for waistband adjustment. Measure 1 and 1/4" from the raw edge and 5/8" down from the center crease you already pressed. This is where your buttonhole with start. 

You should now have two buttonholes. 

I always put a pin in the top of my buttonhole before I use my seam ripper to open the hole. You rip through the top of the buttonhole once, and you'll never do it again! Hence, the pin :)

You now have two buttonholes completed on the back waistband. Grab your two sashes, if you opted to add them! You will place them on top of the right side of the back waistband that doesn't have the buttonholes. The sashes should be aligned slightly above the ironed fold and the raw edges will extend beyond the raw edges of the waistband piece. Pin. Place the top waistband piece on top of the back waistband piece and sashes. The right sides will be together. 

The front waistband piece will be smaller than the back waistband piece. This is because the back waistband piece will have the elastic in it. Sew down the sides of the waistband pieces so you now have a round piece waistband that's all connected. Press the seams open. 

Our final step today is to make the waistband casing.  Sew a straight line from the top of one buttonhole to the top of the other buttonhole. Do the same on the bottom of the buttonholes. You know have a casing for your elastic and you are done with day 3! Great work sewalong-ers!!

If you have any questions or would like to share your progress, remember to join us in the LLK Cafe! Use the hashtag #LLKRetroGlam when you share your photos!  

See you tomorrow! 

Kimberlee

Harper Creek Boutique Blog

Harper Creek Boutique Facebook Page 

LLK Sewalong- Day 2 Retro Glam Skirt

Welcome back!

If you're just joining the party, welcome! We're on day 2 of the sewalong to make the the Little Lizard King Retro Glam Skirt. Day 1 can be found here.  

I hope you are ready rock and roll! It's time to cut up the beautiful fabric you chose yesterday! 

First, you will need to cut 10 scallops and 10 triangles. Pay special attention to the "top" and "bottom" of these pattern pieces. 

If you have a non-directional fabric (I.e. one you can turn in any direction and it still looks the same), I found the cutting process to be much quicker by laying two of the same pattern pieces side by side. I folded the material and then laid there pattern pieces next to each other like this:

Wahla! Four pieces already cut!

I always try to figure out the quickest and least wasteful way to cut fabric. I'm sure you have some great ideas on how to cut these shapes too! Share away at the LLK Cafe! 

Put on some sweet tunes and cut away! Once you have your 10 scallops, 10 triangles, one piece of elastic, two pieces of lightweight stabilizer, front waistband, back waistband and (optional) side sashes, you're finished with day 2! 

Remember to share your fabrics and progress at the LLK Cafe! Use the hashtag #LLKRetroGlam because at the end of the week there will be prizes!! Eeek! 

Here is what I have:

Sewalong, farewell, (I know, now I've got the Sound of Music stuck in your head :) )

Kimberlee

Harper Creek Boutique Blog

Harper Creek Boutique Facebook Page