June Bug dress remix tutorial-part 1. English version

I finally managed to finish the tutorial! For those that were waiting for it, thanks for your patience. Here  it  is!

Before reading this  tutorial: please, notice  english is a foreign language  for me. I do my  best  to explain things  as  clear  as possible, but I'm sure you'll find  lots of  mistakes and  odd sentences. Try to be  comprehensive  and, if  you think you can help me improve any part of  it, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't  hesitate to leave  a comment with your suggestions. Thank you!

  Junebug Dress Remix Tutorial

Para  la versión en español haz  clic aquí
Per a  la versió en català fes clic aquí

The first step is to get the pieces of the pattern. We need any kind of A-line dress

pattern  or we can draft it from a dress that we already have. We also need  the  downloadable (for free!)  pattern pieces for the  original Junebug Dres from Craftiness is not  Optional.

The dress consists of 6 parts: a 3-piece front, a back piece and 2 facings.

We will leave the back piece as is, and will only change the front piece.

Since the seam allowance  is already included in the  pattern I used, I skipped that  step. If  your  pattern doesn't  include seam allowances, remember  to  add them before cutting  the  pieces out  of  fabric.

We'll measure our victim to find out where shall we place the pockets. To do this we will have to make her stand with her elbows slightly bent (as  if she  had  her  hands  in her pockets).Measure from top shoulder to the fingertips and add 4 cm (about 1 1/2 ").This will be our 'A' measurement. Now  measure from above her shoulder to the wrist; this is measurement 'B'. 

Buttoned flap
Take  the  front piece  of the  A-line dress pattern. (I used the  Kate's dress pattern from Lily Bird Studio, you can buy it here or here)

Mark  on the front  pattern piece the measurements we have taken before: the red arrow is the length shoulder-wrist (measuremnent 'B') and the green arrow is the distance from shoulder to the fingertips + 4 cm (measurement 'A'). On the right is the finished
piece:

To make the following  pattern pieces I used  the pieces from Jess' tutorial  you can download them for free!.
Although I was making a 5/6 size , the pieces for size 2/3 worked perfectly.

Place the 'bodice  flap' piece on top of the dress front piece. Do your best   to align the  lower part  of both necklines. Following the outline on the right of  Jess' piece, extend the line to  the mark we did before for the shoulder-wrist distance (measurement 'B', red arrow)). Round the area of the pocket as you like

First piece ready!


flap facing:
We will make a piece identical to the  one we have done before, but with a shorter length . Do you remember the shoulder-finger tip + 4cm distance (measurement 'A') we have indicated with a green arrow? this should be the length of this piece.
 We have to copy the previous piece and cut out the bottom at the height of the mark we made. This piece, in addition to being the flap facing is also the front of the pocket, this is why  the length is up to the fingertips.

Second piece ready!


bodice front sides
Let's make  the third piece.
We have to modify  the original front piece (the pattern we are using as a starting point) to obtain a piece like the  one in the  picture below (on the left you have the original piece without modification and on the right the  modified piece):

to make it we need the piece in Jess' tutorial called  'bodice front / sides'. Again, I used the piece for 2T size  without  anyalteration:

Place Jess' piece on top of your starting  front piece  matching (as possible) the  neck and shoulder edges. In photo above indicated with blue arrows. Cut the neck line following the shape of Jess' piece , pictured above with a pink arrow.

Next, we'll extend the left edge of Jess' piece (yellow arrow) to almost double it (this measurement is not very scientific, I know, but since it's hidden under the flap in the finished garment it has little importance, provided that is big enough to let the  gir'ls head go through easily (since it's the only opening in the dress)).

Now let's determine the length of this piece. To do this, take the last piece, the flap facing (notice that the picture below actually shows the flap piece and not the flap facing piece, sorry, the length of the facing is indicated with a dashed line):

and place it on the piece we're working on, matching the neck line (yellow arrow) and the edge to be cut on fold (pink arrow):

Trim the piece so that it has the same length as the flap facing, see the blue arrow. Notice this piece is also the back piece of the pocket and that is why it is important it is the same lenght as the front pocket piece (flap facing) since the  lower edges of both pieces  must be sewn together.

third piece completed!.

The hardest part is ready. 

Front sides facing

Taking the previous piece (the bodice front sides) copy the shoulder edge (from approximately half armpit edge), the neckline and under flap opening edge (indicated by the pink line). Leaving a width of about 3-4cm (this is the size that I did, but you can make  the width you feel more  comfortable  with) draw a curved line (blue line) that joins the ends of the pink line. My recommendation is  you make  it  wide  enough so it can be  hold by the  stitches you'll make  to attach the  buttons..

This is  what  you should  have:

Back facing

Now take the Back piece for  the dress pattern you're using as a start  point. 

We'll copy the neckline  area,  taking the width of the shoulder (again you can take  the  width you prefer,  however, since the front  and  back facings will be sewn at the shoulder edge, they  should be the same width at this point) draw a parallel line to the neckline.

Sleeves:
Again I rely on the pieces supplied by Jess from Craftiness Is Not Optional. The only modification I did was adding 1 cm (about 1/2") at the bottom and another 1/2" at the top. (Now, considering that the sleeve was too big for  my taste, perhaps I would not. I will leave  that to your discretion)

done! we have finished for today!

Come back tomorrow for the second part  of the tutorial: we'll cut the  pieces  and  sew  the dress.***edited: click here to go to the  second  part  of this tutorial***

PS: This tutorial is for personal use only . Please, be respectful with other people's work. If you post something about this tutorial in your blog / website please include a link to my blog. Do not copy the tutorial on your website / blog, please.

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