 Hello, in this tutorial I'm going to show you how to create the dress that's part of the Jack Dempsey Neutel Art Pillow Case Dull Kit. Let's go ahead and get started. The first thing we need to do is to cut out all our pieces for the dress. So you're going to do that from your fabric. We have bodice front, bodice back pieces, bodice lining front, and then bodice lining back pieces. You have two sleeves and the biggest one is going to be the skirt portion. Make sure that you do the embroidery before assembly. Grab all your bodice pieces so that the bodice here and then the bodice lining which looks exactly the same way. You're also going to have front, both back pieces. You're going to be doing the same thing for both sets. I'm just going to show you with this one since it's closer, but you'll do the exact same thing that I'm showing on this one as well. We're going to be attaching the back pieces to the front pieces sewing at the shoulder seam, which is right up here. You need to make sure that when you place your back on your front, you're placing them so they're right sides together, which means that the writing is going to be darker on one side. That's the right side. Also on this side, the writing is also backwards on the wrong side. So I'm flipping this over. So now the right sides are together. I'm matching up the shoulder seam. Also you want to make sure that you have it on the right side, which means this armhole curve is on the same side when you place them together. So if I was to place this on this side, this is definitely wrong because we have an armhole curve here and it's not the same way on this side. We're only pinning up here at the top, at the shoulder seam. You're going to make sure that your raw edges are meeting and also the ends are meeting as well. Once everything is lined up, just go ahead and pin it into place because we're going to be sewing a seam here. And then I could go ahead, grab this one and put it on this side. So again, I'm placing them right sides together, making sure the armhole curves are on the same side, lining up the shoulder seam up here at the top and then pinning just this area up here. And once I've done with this, I'll be doing the exact same thing on this one as well. When beginning and ending seams, make sure you do a couple of back stitches and I'm just doing a regular, straight stitch and doing a quarter inch seam allowance, which should put you right on this blue dash line that they already have marked out for us. What you sew a seam is then a good idea afterwards to then press that seam. You can see my shoulder seams here are pressed open. Just make sure that you use a cool iron. We don't want the heat of the iron to then set our inks. That's why I'm using a cool one. Just makes it really difficult then to get out the blue ink when we're done because it could set that. You're going to take both pieces and you're going to place them on top of each other right side to right side and you're going to line it up perfectly. Then we're going to sew our quarter inch seam allowance. You're going to start here on this straight edge and this is the center back and you're going to sew up the center back. You're going to pivot, sew around the neck curve and then sew back down on this other center back. We're then going to clip our seam allowance. So the first one I'm going to cut is going to be this corner here. So I'm just going to cut it off with my scissors being careful not to actually cut into the stitches of my seam because that's going to create a hole. You see I've already done it on this side. This is going to be helpful because once we flip this area our bodice right side out we're not going to have all this fabric trying to bunch up in this corner right here. So it's going to lie a little bit flatter. Also I recommend cutting notches into any curved seams such as our net curve here. You can see I've already done a couple right here. So you're just cutting inverted triangles into your seam allowance and I do it about every quarter inch. Again making sure that you're not cutting into your stitches at all and I would do it for this whole area here and that will help the neckline lie a little bit flatter as well. Once you're finished cutting it go ahead and you're going to take this and you're going to flip it so that it's right side out. With it right side out it's going to look similar except now we're going to have the wrong sides together and we have this finished edge here on the center back and also the neck curve. After this is a good idea to then press it again with a cool iron. Now we're going to move on to the sleeves. So I'm going to demonstrate with one sleeve but of course you have two of them so you're going to do the same steps with the other sleeve as well. Your first you're going to take your sleeve you're going to flip it so you're looking at the wrong side. We're just going to be dealing with this bottom straight edge because we're going to be doing the hem first. So I'm going to grab my sewing gauge and some straight pins and you're going to take this raw edge and you're going to fold it over to the wrong side. I'm going to do a quarter of an inch but you can do a half inch if you wish and then I'm just going to measure make sure that it's accurate and then if it's good go ahead pin it into place. So I'm going to do this for the whole length of my sleeve and just move down and then do another pin. And again you're going to do this for both sleeves. Now if you want we can go ahead and just stitch it as is and that's going to complete the hem or if you want to add a little bit of a decorative touch you can add some trim to the bottom. So I have this lace that I want to add and I'm just going to place it right on top of my folded hem. And then you can just go ahead remove your straight pins and just pin it into place and we'll just stitch it all at the same time. Now for this lace in particular you'll see that it has sort of this top part we want to make sure that this is going to be covered. So after I pin it into place I always flip it over to the right side so I can make sure that I'm going to like the look and everything is covered that I want covered. And once you have it pinned we can then take it to the machine and stitch it into place. I'm going to stitch right down the middle of my hem and if you're doing the lace trim make sure that you're also catching that in your stitches. To prep our sleeve we're going into our bodice what we need to do is to sew two rows of gathering stitches up here at the cap of the sleeve. Now that each stitch is going to be on top of one of these dash lines so you can see exactly I'll do one here and do one here. The basting stitch is going to be the longest stitch on your machine and don't do any back stitching because we're going to be pulling our threads in order to gather the top of the sleeve. Grab the top threads, not the bobbin threads just the top ones and gently start pulling in order to gather the top so I can do it on the side and then I can do the same thing on the side. Next we're going to be pinning each sleeve to the armhole curve of our bodice. Now just to make things easier as a recommendation I do a basting stitch all the way around the raw edges that were left just to attach the lining to my bodice and it just makes it a little bit easier to have it already stitched than to have them separated. So I'm going to take a sleeve and again we're just pinning it to the curved area of the armhole. I have the bodice facing up because it's going to go bodice to the right side of the sleeve. The lining is going to be on the other side and I'm just going to start matching. So this point here at the end is going to match the point here and I'm going to pin it and then we also have another point down here and that's going to match up this area right here. Then you can adjust your gathering in the middle either bring it in more or let it out in order to fit the rest of the curve. You want to make sure that it's kind of evenly distributed and then you're going to go ahead and sew your quarter inch seam allowance and there will be one sleeve attached. You're not going to be sewing anything on these straight edges here just the curves and then I'm going to do the same thing on the side. Next we're sewing the underarm seam and the bodice side seam together. So the bodice side seam is that little straight edge that was right underneath the curve. So I have one here and then I have one here. This is right side up. I'm going to bring those little side seams together and you can see what it's doing. It's folding my sleeve in half. I have the seam allowance that I created in the last part. So this is the seam allowance from the bodice and the sleeve and it's facing towards the sleeve. I just find it easier to do it this way. I'm matching up the side seam. It's just a little tiny area here and straighten out the sleeve and you're also going to pin this area as well. So this is the underarm seam and this is the side seam. To sew this I'm going to start here. I'm going to sew up. Once I get to the top of the side seam I'm going to pivot and then I'm going to stitch the underarm seam. So this is all going to be one stitch. If you did a lace trim you can go ahead and continue on your seam to the end of that as well. So I'm going to do it for this side and then do it for this side as well. Let's go ahead and move on to the skirt. The first thing we need to do is to hem the bottom. So I'm going to hem this bottom edge. Again I'm looking at the wrong side and I'm going to fold up whatever measurement you want. I'm going to do a quarter of an inch like I did the last time with my sleeves and I'm going to go ahead and pin it into place. Again, if you want to add a trim after you pin it you can go ahead and incorporate the lace into your pinning job. And then just as we did before you're going to stitch right down the center making sure that you catch your lace in that stitch and then your hem will be complete. As we did with the top of our sleeve at the top of your skirt you're going to sew two rows of basting stitches. Again that's the longest stitch on your machine. Don't do any back stitching because we're also going to gather the top of the skirt to fit the bottom of our bodice. So we have our blue dash lines as a guideline on where you should sew the stitches. You're going to fold your skirt in half. So the right side is going to be on the inside. You're going to match up these raw edges here on the end. This is going to be the skirt center back. So you're going to pin along this length and we're going to sew a quarter inch seam allowance. You're going to start down here at the bottom include the lace if you have that. So you're sewing a quarter inch all the way up but you're stopping when you reach three inches from the top. So from the top and down three inches there's going to be no stitches. Don't forget to back stitch on the beginning and end and then when you're done press your seam open with a cool iron. At the top of your center back seam so this is the area that we left open that's about three inches on each side. You're going to turn over a quarter of an inch. I'm turning a quarter of an inch on this side and then I'm doing the same thing on this side. Go ahead and pin it in the place and then you're just going to stitch really close to your folded edge in order to keep it folded over on its own. After you're doing that you go ahead and flip your skirt right side out. Next we're going to be sewing our skirt to our bodice and I know it looks like quite a difference that's why we have the gathering stitches in the skirt because we're going to be gathering all this up in order to fit this area. So here's the back of my bodice. The center back is going to match the center back of your skirt. Now you're going to make sure that when we're pinning this we're pinning it to the right side of the bodice not the lining. So it's still going to go right side to right side. So the first pin I'm going to do is going to be the center of the skirt with the center of my bodice. So I'm pinning that and you'll notice I'm matching up the raw edge of the bodice and there's the neckline of my bodice going down towards the bottom of the skirt. So now this has to match up with this. So I'm just going to start pulling my basting threads in order to start gathering it. So this part might take a while and it may take some adjustment and I'm just slowly going to start bringing my gathers in until it starts getting close to what I need it to be. Once I get it then I can start pinning all this into place. So again matching up the raw edges, going to pin all this and then I'm going to do the exact same thing on this side. Once everything is gathered and it's fitting with the bottom of your bodice then you can go ahead and sew it into place with your quarter inch seam allowance. With the skirt attached to the bodice it now is starting to look like a dress. We still have an opening back here at the top of the center back seam. So the three inches at the top of the skirt and then all of the bodice is still open. So this is the last thing we need to do. The way you close the top is really up to you. You can use Velcro, you can use buttons. I'm actually going to use sew on snaps and I'm just using these little tiny ones that I found and this comes in a pair. So you have the flat one and then you have the stud that goes into it and I'm actually only placing it in three positions. I'm doing it here at the top. I'm going to do it here close to where the skirt and bodice meet and then I'll do another one right here in the middle. So we'll get a little closer to show you how to sew that on. So notice around the perimeter of each snap you have these little tiny holes and these are the holes we're going to be sewing through and you really only need to do a couple of stitches for each hole. So in my first stitch I'm actually going to do the bottom one. I'm coming up and grabbing a little bit of fabric and then coming up through the hole and I'm doing this by hand so I'm using a hand needle. And once you get a couple of stitches in it'll be a little bit more secure. So we'll do one more and that should be good for the bottom hole. So when I'm ready to move on to a new one I'm going to go underneath the snap if you want grab a little bit of fabric and then come up on the other side. And now I can go ahead and do a couple of stitches in this hole as well. So I'm going to do it for all four of these. And then it should be fairly secure and then you can see one that I already have done on the side. In order to cinch up the bottom of the sleeve I'm going to be sewing a running stitch right along the bottom. You can see I already made marks here with my fabric marker and these marks are made three quarters of an inch from the bottom of my hem so my white fabric here. I'm going to start on the outside fold line of my sleeve. So this is the underarm seam so it's on the opposite side. And I have my matching embroidery floss here and I just have three strands of it. And I'm just going in and then coming back up. In order to do this quickly what I like to do is go back down again and then go back up. And I'm using these as my guideline on where I need to stitch in order to make it a little bit more even. So every time I come in and out I move in my needle about a quarter of an inch so my stitches are a little bit on the small side. And then I can just pull my needle through but don't pull it all the way through and I'm not tying the end either because we're going to end up tying a bow with this after we cinch it. So now I'm going to go back down again and then just run my needle up and down through the fabric in a running stitch. And I'm just going to go all the way around the sleeve and then come back out around the same point. You're going to take your floss and you're going to pull it to start cinching up this part of the sleeve and this will be a good idea to do after you already have your doll in your dress. So then you know how tight you want to cinch it up. And then when you're done cinching up as much as you want go ahead tie a bow and then you can cut off the excess. Here you can see our finished dress on our doll and go ahead and remove any basting stitches if they're still there. The basting stitches were just temporary stitches to help us with the gathering so we don't need them anymore. Also it's a good idea to wash your dress so you can get rid of any of the blue marks. If you want to add extra embellishment you're definitely free to do so you can see I added a ribbon here you can also do buttons down the bodice. Please make sure to check out other pillowcase doll tutorials by Jack Dempsey Needle Art.