Easy casings

Remember my blue and white dress that I made here http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2011/05/i-finished-my-dress.html  It was too big in the waist, so I added a big white bow.  It looks better, but I still need to lose weight, I remember when I was a size eight when I got married! 

All of my grass is dead, we have not had any rain in a few months here in Texas. It was pretty simple to make.  I cut two strips of material about 5 inches wide and guessed at the length.  Then I folded the strip in half long ways and sewed it (if you have a right side and wrong side make sure you have the right sides together.)  Here comes the hard part, you can use a safety pin, or a special tool from the store, I usually use a dowel rod or when my husband helps, he uses a gun cleaning tool that has a loop at the end that we attach a safety pin to then just pull it through.  This casing was wide enough that I was able to stick both my thumbs in like this:

(My seven year old neighbor girl took the pictures for me, she did a good job didn't she?)  Then with my forefingers I started scrunching the sides up like this:

I scrunched as far down as I could while keeping my thumbs inside. Then I pushed the remaining fabric up into the casing from the bottom with a finger like this:

I just kept pushing the material up through the casing while pulling down with my fingers on top.

If you have a long casing you'll get to where you have to grab the inside of the casing to finish pulling it through and you'll get this:

Iron the casing with the seam in the back, or underside.  Sew one end on each tie and the other end will be sewn into the dress.  I ripped the thread out on each side big enough to fit the tie through and then sewed it up!  Voila, ties that took fifteen minutes to make!

Please excuse the wrinkly dress, I had just gotten home from church.  I have to share one more picture with you. 
These are my nine month old kittens, Muffin and Tiger.  They already weigh ten pounds!  And my five week old kitten Pippi. 

I just wanted to leave you with a smile today!  I think this picture will become a favorite with me!  LOL
I hope my directions make sense, if you have any questions feel free to ask, but if you want an answer, you will need to leave your email add. for me!

Missy