Inspired By: Crew Cuts Jitterbug (and a series!)

Today I’m kicking off a series here on this blog – INSPIRED BY.

There are a few other sewing blogs out there that do a great job at taking RTW/Designer clothes and matching them to sewing patterns and fabric to recreate the look for less. I’m always interested in these posts, because that’s why I sew! I love the clothes in many a store out there, but I know I can make the same thing myself, often with better quality, better fit and for a fraction of the cost.

But what I haven’t found is very many posts showing these items actually done! So I’m going to be sharing my recreations of RTW clothes in this series. I’ll show the inspiration piece and how I achieved the look in real life.

This week, I was inspired by the Jitterbug Girls Striped Dress at Crew Cuts.

It looked so cozy and a simple for the cooler weather that has settle in, at least where we live. I found this sweater knit at SR Harris and thought it would be perfect for this project.

I love that I found a sweater knit vs. just an interlock or t-shirt knit. I think it makes the dress just a bit dressier and it will be warm enough for both fall and winter.

I started with my favorite TNT t-shirt pattern, Jalie 2805. Any good t-shirt pattern would work, or even drafting a pattern from a well fitting RTW shirt. I adjusted for an a-line skirt, starting just above the natural waist line and down to, what I thought would be, knee length. Later I found I did my math wrong and it was actually ankle length…

I constructed the whole thing with my serger, which took no time at all. After a quick check for fit on the girls (and discovering the ankle length and needing to remove about 3” off the hem) I determined where I was going to place the bodice gathers.

The inspiration dress appears to have gathers at the waist line, but I decided I wanted them to be just a little above the waist line, about 5 inches down from the neckband. For these three-year-old girls, currently wearing size 4 or 5 (I traced a size I or girls 5 in this pattern) I used a piece of 1/4” elastic that was 5 1/2 inches long. I placed each end 2 inches from the side seams and stretched in between with a zig-zag stich on my machine. I hand stitched on a white ribbon bow.

I made one design change though. I wanted to be sure these would last till spring so I purposely cut the sleeves long. And they were long! So I decided to add some ruching on the sleeves to shorten the length for now, with the idea that when they get a little bigger and the sleeve length is too short, I can add length by removing the ruching.

Here is the finished product. I love how they turned out.

I hope you enjoyed! And please continue to stop by and visit my Inspired By series. Next up will be a great dress for fall for me!