Posted on February 12, 2018
See a different side of fashionista Minnie Mouse as she celebrates her 60th birthday. Her traditional wardrobe of white, black and red polka dots are made more contemporary in white, grey and hot pink with polka dots. This fun little outfit would be fun and comfortable for a trip to Disney World or Disneyland. THE Dream Machine has features such as the laser for straight seams and accessory feet such as stitch-in-the-ditch and side cutter. The embroidery on the shorts was done with THE Dream Machine and the Brother Quattro applique functions because the gingham is too lightweight for a dense design.
Requirements:
- Toddlers’ Tent Tops, Dresses and Shorts (A pullover top and dress that have forward shoulder button and buttonhole front closures)
- Fabric: 1 yd. white twill, 7/8 yd. gray gingham
- Notions: Threads: sewing, embroidery, monofilament, 5/8 yd. of ½” elastic, 5 yds. ruffled rick rack, 2 yds. piping, tearaway and heavy water soluble stabilizer
- Machines: Brother Quattro or THE Dream Machine, 5×7 frame
- iBroidery Designs: MMUP04 plus shirt floral border, MMUP05 plus shorts floral border
Shirt Floral Boder.pes
Shorts Floral Border.pes
Top
- Cut one front and one back, both on the fold. Transfer all marks for matching points, buttons and buttonholes. Make vertical center crease with iron and measure down 4.5″ to mark placement for center of Minnie design.
- Open MMUP04. Add top floral border directly below, nestling Minnie’s shoes and the Disney copyright as close to the floral border as possible.
- Embroider MMUP04 + top floral border.
- Seam front to back on one side with 5/8″ seam allowance. Use THE Dream Machine laser to guide your stitching. Finish seam with zig zag, serge, or French seam.
Note: Brother’s accessory 7 mm side cutter does a wonderful job. It’s like a mini serger. I use mine frequently.
- Sew hemline by machine with one side seam still open.
Note: You all have probably figured this out long ago, but I struggled with curved hemlines for a pretty long time before someone shared this tip with me. So here it is. Because the hemline is curved, it is a little challenging to fold under 1/4″ then turn up 1″. Serge or zig zag overcast the edge, removing ¼”, leaving just a 1″ hem allowance with no raw edge folded under. Then run a straight gathering stitch L 3.0 sewn just below the serged edge. Press a crease 1″ from the serged edge. Of course, the wider serged edge will not lie flat. Draw up extra fullness with the gathering stitch, distributing tiny gathers evenly and use glass head pins to hold in place. Pins with plastic heads will melt, which is why glass heads are so important. Press hem again then straight stitch just inside the serged edge.
- Apply piping around entire top, from underarm to the opposite underarm. Save time and aggravation by using your knee lift. Take care to clip curves every ¼-3/8″.
Note: Remove piping ¾” filler from first end of piping before application. As you approach the open underarm, again remove ¾” filler from piping before stitching it down. This reduces bulk later when the side seam is sewn. See image 6 below.
- Apply rick rack so that the bottom peak extends beyond the finished hem edge. Add two more rows of rick rack just above the first. This covers the machine stitched hem.
Note: It’s helpful to draw two evenly spaced lines above the first row.
- Stitch open side seam and finish in same manner as other side seam.
- Cut lining from gray gingham. Stitch side seams as indicated in pattern guide sheet. Serge or finish bottom edge as directed in pattern or any way you like.
- Seam facing to neckline. Trim seam and clip curves. Tack facing to underarm seams.
- Stitch buttonholes and sew on buttons. Top is finished.
Shorts
- Cut out two fronts and 2 backs. Trim 1″ from shorts hemline on all shorts pieces. The 1 ¼” hem seam allowance has been reduced to ¼”.
- Seam one front to one back as directed in guide sheet.
- Mark placement of embroidery on one front. Size 4 placement is 3 ½” from hemline and 3 ½” from the side. Smaller sizes may require different measurements.
- Open design MMUP05. Add shorts floral border, again snugging the border as closely as possible to the feet and Disney copyright. See image 7 below.
Note 1: Because the gray gingham is very lightweight and the design is relatively dense, it is best embroidered as an applique’. The white fabric added strength and stability to the design. My first effort, stabilized with two layers of tearaway, was bullet proof because those two layers were trapped on the back between the bobbin thread and the fabric. The second and final embroidery was done with two layers of heavy water soluble stabilizer. After soaking, the stabilizer had dissolved leaving the embroidery much softer.
Note 2: Instructions for the applique’ technique used here are detailed in an earlier Stitching Sewcial post, His and Hers Applique’ Mickey and Minnie Roadsters.
- Assemble shorts as indicated on pattern guide sheet. Leave the crotch unstitched.
- Finish hemline with serged edge or zig zag. Press up ¼” to inside and stitch in place.
- Join rick rack with monofilament thread to hemline. Position so that the peaks hang below the finished edge, as on the shirt.
- Seam the crotch, catching the rick rack in the seam. Trim and finish seam.
- Serge or zig zag the top of shorts. Press crease 1″ from finished edge.
- Create a header in the casing by stitching a scan 1/8″ from the fold. By moving the needle 5 tics from center, the edge stitch/stitch in the ditch foot makes easy work of this.
Stitch down casing and insert elastic as instructed in guide sheet.
Press, present to a little girl and expect a big smile.