A Birthday Dress

With 2 months to spare, her birthday dress is completed. She changed plans on me after I'd cut out the smocking section. Originally we were doing a ruffled skirt and shirt, but then she became very adamant about it being a dress, one-piece! SO...I had to get creative as how to put this thing together.
She's all about being fance (AKA Fancy Nancy), loving ruffles, trims, bows, etc. If it twirls out three feet, all the better. I am hoping to find or make her (or better, have someone else make her!) a play dress up wedding dress for her birthday! Initially I was going to do a peasant-style skirt out of 4 or 5 coordinating fabrics. When I got to putting this together, it seemed out of place. Consequently, I have several extra ruffles made! Luckily, we bought plenty of fabric to do this all in just one.

I kind of botched the smocked section. It was made a couple inches too narrow, so a patch was added at the ends. That is not too visible, but then I failed to gather it to the skirt so it didn't hang quite rigt. I added the ribbon ties in those area, and viola, it is not obvious (and it is more fancy!)

Very simple smocking since the fabric is busy.

And under the layers of ruffling is a ribbony fabric.

My happy model.

And she's twice as happy because I came home from Target with these new sandals for her - her first ever. They are still hard to walk in, but she loves them all the same. They'll be perfect on the beach.

Sewing Something a little Different

I mostly finished up my daughter's birthday dress. Her birthday is still 2 months away, but now she can wear it this summer too. I have used this pattern, but made a few small modifications/enhancements. I opted not to do a more time-consuming smocked dress like I did last year, in hopes of getting it done faster, and perhaps having her wear it more. It is a sleeveless jumper too so that when it cools down in the fall, she can put a long-sleeve shirt underneath.
It's much simpler than others (here and here) I have done...no ruffles, no petticoats, etc. But I still think it is cute. The bottom has a border of this colorful floral. I used a variation of this type print (only a smaller floral) as the bodice lining.
Sadly I could not find my wing-needle yesterday so that I could do a prettier edging on the collar. I can do a nice entredeux stitch to give a collar a great vintage look. This is one of my favorite needles, and I am distraught over misplacing it. Instead, I just did a double row of top-stitching with a narrow twin-needle. BTW, the collar is scalloped (the curvyness is not by error!).
Here you can see what I added to the bodice...a few pleats, a little decorative scallop stitches some ivory eyelet leftover from another pfoject, and 4 sweet ladybug buttons.

They looked very sweet!

The 3 cousins in their holiday dresses...Yes, finally finished!

And My little princess looking so very sweet, in her first pair of real "Girl" shoes!

Below, she's getting to wear her birthday dress. I waited having her wear it until she could walk so she didn't just drag the ruffles all over the floor crawling. She's been on foot about a month now.

Now, I am plotting my next smocking project... I have a navy check to do Sophie a dress for next Spring. The underdress with ruffles is a pain in the next to get the right length. I had almost sworn I'd never do another one. But when I see it on her and how it flows, and how it holds the dress out fully, I love the way it looks.

Fit for a Princess, but in a slump

Sometimes I just dread sewing. That is now: Halloween. The boys need their costumes and I am dragging my feet at starting them. It is such uninspiring sewing; I hate it. The crush-pane that Captain Hook's coat is being done in is slippery. In a word, a Pain to sew. I have mostly finished the shirt for Peter Pan, but it lacks pizzazz. Maybe next week my kid will nap and I'll be focused to sew.
On another front, the Christmas dress for my daughter is gorgeous. Sometimes I just amaze myself when I can sew without making huge mistakes, and have it look like this. The collar has a lovely entredeux edging that I did with a wing needle. I am still testing out some of the decorative stitches my new machine has. This one I like.

Sophie's Christmas Dress

It's coming of mere scraps that I have left from anothe rproject, but it's going to be very sweet.

My Baby will be Darling for the Holidays

I had a little material left over from the dresses I have mostly finished making for the neighbor girls. So I have decided to whip (this is where you choke a few times and laugh loudly) one up for Sophie. She only needs about a yard of fabric, maybe a touch less since this is wide. That of course assumes that I don't have to cut anything out twice :-) !!! The dress will be smocked on the bodice. The sleeves will be the creamy heart-floral like the under dresses for the older girls are. I just don't have enough of the red. I will also do a ruffly crinoline-style bottom for the dress of the cream floral, maybe with ivory eyelet too. She'll be pretty and fancy for Christmas, or Valentine's Day depending when this gets finished.

I did the smocking different from the last few projects. At first I was unsure because the diamonds were very simple, maybe even bland. But then I took a giant leap (as recommended here) and added the bullion roses (thanks EST for directions!). And then bland is very Baby-Beautiful. I do like the simpler smocked bodice.


I still have a trillion bullion knots to finish, and a bottom wavy border, but I think you can get the idea where this is going. ...very vintage baby

Holiday Dress Making, Part III

OK, did I mention that there were 2 sisters?? Here's dress #2...
I have already completed the 2 front pinnafore sections that are smocked. They are similar to the other dress's but not exactly the same. The piece below is just a rectangular section that will attach to the smocked bodice piece. It will eventually be cut using the bodice pattern (to curve for nect & arm holes).

Smocked bodice #2 with mini-piping sewn at the top.

Same piece, now with the top of the bodice rectangle added. It's now ready for cutting. But I haven't done that yet! Next post...
OK, onto the trimmings. I got this fabulous 1.625" eyelet from Ebay at about a third the going price. Saw it at Joann's (heads turn...Oh God, she shops at Joann's?) for $3 a yard. I got nearly 14 yards for $10. Only problem is that it was white and I wanted ivory. So...I tea stained it. The result was exactly what I wanted. Good recipe to remember: 1 standard tea bag per cup of boiling water. Let steep 30 minutes. Allow soak of 30 minutes. Then rinse/soak with cool water. The color difference is subtle, but it makes all the difference when it is next to the ivory color of the under-dress.
Oh, have I mentioned that I have hardly sewn a seam that I haven't ripped out. I'm darn near ready to toss these dresses out the window. I was going on someone else's measurements for lengths. Very trusting person I am! The pinnafore had lovely pleats (2) around the hem like the purple dress I did recently. I held it up to my son, who is 4-5 inches shorter than the girl it is for. The dress hit mid-calf on him. I croaked! That's where I wanted it to be on her! UGGH...So I ditched the pleats and gained 2" of length. Best compromise I could find short of strangling the measurer! Seing as she's family, that would not have looked good.

Making a Smocked Holiday Dress, Part II

OK, this may be a little out of order. I haven't yet got pictures of how I take the rectangular smocked panel and make it into a bodice front. Patience...I will ge there. But I think you can see how a piece of the checked material is attached atop the piping. Then I go to the "actual" McCalls pattern and mark where the smocking will be cut. Not until I do a couple rows of tight machine stitching (small zig zag) over this line, do I actually cut through the smocking. I added a lightweight cranberry bodice facing and piping around the neckline. The sleeves are finished with a narrow rolled edge hem like would be used on a quilt binding. A one-inch, interfaced button placket runs the entire length of the dress. That still needs to be added.

Poor quality picture - this is the actual dress material which is underneath the pinnafore. You can see how the greens in the smocking coordinate nicely. I have also added a narrow green piping on this dress. Again, more and better pictures soon. The dress does not have sleeves and collar yet!

Making a Holiday Smocked Dress

I'm making a smocked holiday dress for somebody. It's this dress. It's got cute ruffles, eyelet and smocking.

I chose a 100% cotton pink/red searsucker plaid for the pinnafore from this store. I did the last project with a 50/50 searsucker, and clearly like the lack of wrinkle better, but this resembles candy-cane so it'll be cute.

Step one...
Cut 2 bodice fronts. They're just rectangular pieces with a width 3 times the max bodice width and length from mid chest to knee. They're 3:1 ratio for the smocking. Don't know if it's easy to see, but next step is to draw gather threads every half inch or so. I should get a real pleater machine if I do much more of this! This step is quite time consuming, but given the cost of pleaters, does a decent job. Just have to be very consistent to make each pleated row the same.

Step 2...
Draw gathers to desired 7" width and knot off each row.
This next frame shows where I actally started the first row of smocking too.

Voila! The first panel is finished (there are two, ah!...). It's a little free-form...no pattern used. It has highlights of the kiwi green that is in the dress material. Haven't uploaded a shot of that yet! I am also adding bullion knots (or eventually flowers) in deep red. She showed me how - her smocking is GORGEOUS!! Thanks!

Step 4... I made a mini-piping to put at the top of the bodice where it attaches to the upper bodice. Apparently I haven't a picture of that step.
Stay tuned...

A First Party Dress

A Party dress for Sophie...

I'm making a dress for her 1st birthday. I used to sew a lot more clothing than I do now. I was frugal; who needed to spend $50 buying something that I could make from nicer material for $15-20. Then I got a high paying job and money was often more trivial than my time.

Different world now. No extra cash. Lots of time (ha ha)...in between watching the 3 kids that is.

The lavendar dress was done 6 years ago for my neice Alyssa. It was my first attempt at smocking & making clothing for something very tiny. Those little sleeves are challenging for large fingers. None the less, I think, despite the lousy picture quality, it was nice for my 1st attempt. My daughter looked so cute in it when it got handed down to us to wear, that I decided I wanted to make something special for her. I have made fleece suits for my boys, but those are easier. Use the serger, nothing is too fitted or detailed. No glory in the outcome either.

Sophie's dress is close to finished. It lacks one sleeve (fabric is re-ordered because I underestimeated needing to make 4 sleeves before I got it right!). It is hand smocked, and that part is gorgeous. Hope the closeup does it justice. Yoke and skirt front are all one piece. Collar is Egyptian cotton and has a lovely sheen. Also added fancy scalloped stitching. Should interface better next time. The skirt has 2 pleats and is nearly 55" around. There is an ivory cotton underskirt with 2.5" lace all around it. Very fancy!

I can hardly wait to start on one for her for Christmas...