i have not sewn for about 2 months now - when i finished my last christmas project i packed up all my sewing stuff lovingly into boxes...a lot of boxes...and then the move happened. the desire has been building to create and play and sew and i have ignored it because of one excuse and another...good thing there are a lot of babies happening in the next couple of months and good thing my sweet little just-about-3-year-old God-Daughter is having a birthday and good thing its almost Valentines day and we all like to celebrate love here, because otherwise this sewing vacation would have lasted quite a bit longer!Because Charlotte is born just a couple days after Valentines Day (in fact i remember visiting a very calm Rashelle on V-Day that year and so blown away that someone that pregnant wasn't on a trampoline trying to have a baby or something...but no...she was very peaceful and content and knew it would happen how it should - and she was so right!) anyway...because she is born so close to the love day i like making her a valentines-ish type of dress...but not too heart-ish...not like a costume...not like blatant candy hearts or XOXO all over or anything...like i would probably do to my own daughter...but Rashelle and Charlotte are much more classy :)
So i found this fabric online and it was too perfect to pass up! and i had been wanting to take another stab at Heather Ross' book Weekend Sewing since my first attempt at the Kimono Dress was rather disastrous...but that was my fault...poor fabric choice first of all...plus that cut would never work for my figure...anyway...back to the point...where was i anyway? oh yes...the flower girl dress from the book...so cute...it was a little bit difficult for me and my direction challenged brain to comprehend some of the directions...it took about 30 read-throughs on some of the directions, but i am so proud of this dress. it is constructed so solid and so well and her pattern is really brilliant...i wanted to try it because my other smock-type pattern did not seem to be fitting very well and needed to be taken in and messed with.
I first started sewing around the time Charlotte was born...i guess it is my 3 year sew-er-versary! i remember making her a blanket and being so embarrassed about the construction of it, but Rashelle convinced me that Charlotte wouldnt care cause it would be from her fairy Godmother (thats who i tell Charlotte i am) so I gave it to her and i am glad i did. I think all the things i make her will also be a good gauge of how far i have developed as a sewer as well! Sadly i have no picture of Charlotte wearing the dress i made her last year, but i did make my poor son try it on for size and you can see it here (it is the second picture down) the things i have made her will tell a little story...so this is her latest dress...i like how the trees resemble hearts, but not too obvious! it is far from perfect...i had a bit of trouble with the straps - being so thin...they are not quite all the same size even though i made 6 of them...and i had some confusion attaching the bodice to the skirt...but Rashelle is right - Charlotte won't mind and that is what matter!
3 comments:
She's going to love it! In fact, you've spoiled her with so many wonderful hand-made gifts that anytime she gets something new she asks "who made this for me...Carlee?" And yes, she refers to you as her fairy god-mother...seriously. Oh, you don't have a picture of her in the dress you made last year because my petite babe still doesn't quite fit into it. Hasn't stopped her from trying to wear it out of the house though :)
Nice blog.Like your heart dress. It looks awesome. Thanks for sharing it.
I had a lot of trouble following Heather's instructions too! I ended up pulling my grandmothers sewing machine out to do the smocking on the first dress I tried, and it worked, but it wasn't very fun! Later, I found a tutorial on smocking, and they said just to wind the elastic thread like you would any normal thread, not to hand wind it like Ross suggests. On my new machine, it totally worked. Having it stretched on the bobbin was the key- apparently the automatic thread tension adjusters on new machines just won't stretch it the way her directions indicate they will.
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