Read Across America Dress

One of the reasons I wanted to learn to sew was to make my kids’ clothes.  After I bought my first couple of Simplicity and McCalls patterns, though, I put that dream to rest because I had  NO IDEA how to read and follow the patterns.  They were simply too complicated for me!

Then last week when I was volunteering at my daughter’s school, there was an announcement about the Dr. Seuss-inspired Read Across America week and I knew I needed to make Bea an appropriate dress for the celebration.  She’s only in kindergarten and not too old for dresses-made-by-mom yet. 

I bought the Reese Peasant Dress pattern on Etsy because it promised lots of photos and many reviewers said it was easy to make.  And it was!   I whipped this dress out in about 2 hours from cutting to finish, and it fits perfectly. 

Last year I traded some DS Quilts fabric on Etsy (probably not officially allowed) for a dress from Wild Olive Kids.  I asked the owner for any advice to learn to sew dresses, and she said to pick a good pattern and practice.  So I picked the Reese pattern specifically for its versatility with sleeves, ruffles, different fabrics, etc.  I am so happy I did!  I also bought two other dress patterns and plan to put them to use when it gets a little warmer out since they are summer styles.

Here is Bea posing next to the dress I traded for.  She hasn’t had a chance to wear the Christmas dress yet because although it’s a size 6, it probably fits more like a size 7 or 8. 

I happened to pick up some of that Michael Miller deer fabric on sale after Christmas and hope to make my other girls similar dresses because I didn’t have three daughters for no reason!  I am linking up this dress to Melissa at Happy Quilting’s Trying New Things Thursday.  This project was so much fun and I see lots of dresses in the future, as soon as I learn how to use my serger.

A new pincushion

The first thing my one year old does when she goes into the sewing room is head straight for my pincushion.  She loves to pull the pins out and put them back in, and it doesn’t help that I tell her “no” and try to take it away,  making it all the more desirable. 

For the past few weeks I have been organizing my sewing room and painting the walls.  It’s been a major switcheroo—moving stuff from one side and back so I can move bookcases out from the walls and get behind them.  In the process, I put the pincushion somewhere that Ronnie couldn’t find it, and I lost it for good.  Haven’t seen it in at least 2 weeks.  So, I decided to make a new one following Svetlana’s super easy tutorial at SOTAK Handmade.

It was really pretty simple and I loved how her trick using Heat n Bond Lite really kept the small squares together perfectly.  I even did a little hand stitching around the perimeter with a dark green embroidery floss I had on hand.  The fabric is mostly leftover scraps from Punctuation by American Jane.

You can see the miniscule little pin holes in the fabric because I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of it and this is what it looks like when it’s in daily use:

Thanks for such a great tutorial, Svetlana!

I have been making a dress for my daughter for Read Across America.  It is Dr. Seuss themed and here is a little sneak peek of the body of the dress.

I just finished it up completely and it’s hanging on a hanger waiting to be tried on by Bea.  I do believe it will fit just fine.  I used a directional print with words on it for the sleeves, and they are not quite right (one is turned one way, and the other is turned upside down—but when viewed from the back one is going the right way and the other is upside down, so we are going to live with it).   Otherwise, I am pretty thrilled with the results and am definitely going to learn how to use my secondhand serger before I attempt to make another one.  It would make finishing the seams so much faster.

Also, we got a new addition to our family yesterday.

Our older Siamese cat, Mickey, has been losing weight for no medical reason, but I think he’s lonely since he’s always had his brother (from the same litter) and two other cat friends, all who have passed away in the past 5 years from various ailments.  So we got him a friend and her name is Oreo.  Good thing she likes sewing!  She fits right in.