The Very Busy Spider

Hi No Big Dill readers! I am over the moon excited to be here. I love Katy and her lovely blog. Isn’t Katy one of the coolest people alive? I’m so glad she blogs and shares her beautiful life with us every week.

Today, I’m going to share an Eric Carle book:

It’s about this spider…

Hello!

Who finds a nice spot on a fence to build a web.

She gets several animal visitors asking her to hang out with them. Each one smaller than the last.

The spider never answers. She is busy spinning her web.

And when her web is done.

The rooster asks her if she wants to catch a pesty fly.

And she does. Or in this case…a gnat! My Nat of course.

“And the spider caught the fly in her web…just like that!”

When night falls, an owl asks who had built the beautiful web. She doesn’t answer. She’s asleep because it’s been a busy day.

Boy can I relate! Now if only I had eight arms like the spider. 🙂

I really love all the handmade textures that Eric Carle has in his books. I thought about treating some fabric to get an Eric Carle look, but thought it might look too costume-y. I wanted to make something practical that we would wear again and again. So, instead, I pulled the green from the spider to make this skirt and added red nails and lips to the outfit. Whenever I see red and green together I think of two things: Christmas and Eric Carle. 🙂

For the tutorial on my “spider” outfit, you’ll have to wait until Color Your Summer II which starts June 4! (EDIT: GO HERE FOR THE TUTORIAL) The shirt is a cotton jersey blouse from Old Navy.

As for my Natalie’s “fly” dress, it’s a simple shirred dress with “wings” in the back.

Here’s the how to:

I started with a yard of 45 inch wide sheer polyester fabric.

I find that it’s easier to shirr this sheer fabric if it’s in a loop than if it’s flat. You will size it down in just a minute. Make sure you shirr by the folded side.

This tutorial from Grosgrain is helpful if you need a how to on shirring.

Usually you want to steam the garment with a hot iron after shirring to get the elastic thread to bunch up even more. Do not do this with this kind of fabric. It’s polyester and will melt.

I tapered the skirt portion out slightly so I don’t lose fullness there.

Now you can tie it into a bow. Or…wings! 😉

Hem the bottom if desired. I felt like a frayed look on the bottom would be more appropriate for a “fly.” So I stitched a straight line all the way around to limit the fraying but not eliminate it.

This sheer material was solid enough through the bodice once I shirred it, but the skirt of the dress was still a little too transparent for my taste. So I added a simple elastic waist under skirt with the selvedge edge for the hem.

The bloomers were created using MADE’s tutorial found here.

Layer the dress over the skirt and voila…a beautiful little bug. 🙂

Thanks for inviting me over Katy. It’s been a pleasure!