See & Sew

One day last week my daughter was really excited to sew a dress.  She picked out fabric from my stash and drew several designs, not understanding what a pattern actually was.   So, in the excitement of it all, we drove to Joanns to look through the pattern books and she picked out this pattern for her dress:

The front says “Yes!  It’s Easy” but sometimes I feel like the tissue paper kind of patterns are anything but.  Step 16 literally says, “Turn facing to inside, turning shoulder straps out; press.  Turn under ends of facing to clear zipper teeth SLIPSTITCH to zipper tape.”

Incomprehensible to me since I don’t really have any garment sewing experience.  But, I had about two hours to get the dress sewn.  So, what did I do???

I made it up!  Thank goodness I’ve been sewing long enough to know the rule to sew right sides together.  I just winged it and figured out a way to get the bodice lining sewn to the dress in a relatively unhaphazard way.  The dress looks great from a distance, and pretty good up close.  I omitted the zipper and put about 4 inches of elastic in the back instead.  The dress was done by 10pm and my daughter stayed up late for her “fittings” so I could adjust the elastic and situate the straps, and she happily modeled it for her dad who was mildly impressed.

We used coordinating Barbie fabric from Over the Rainbow.

Here is the back sans zipper.  I kind of like the elastic better, to tell you the truth, because she can get herself dressed without my help.

My first love is definitely quilting, but sewing the occasional dress is fun, especially if it means spending time with my daughter.

They grow up so fast

My youngest baby is now 14 months old.  The time passes so quickly.  I have never made too many handmade things for my kids besides quilts.  I have spent hours staring lovingly at all the beautiful items in Anna Maria Horner’s Handmade Beginnings book, but actually making stuff, I’ve never quite gotten around to it.

For Valentine’s, I made everyone in my family a homemade gift.  New hairbows for the older daughters, and white-chocolate-chip-macadamia-nut cookies for the hubby.  But for the youngest, I got off my duff and made her an array of new bibs.

She will be wearing them for at least a few more months, and now that she demands to feed herself—which makes an unholy mess—they will get some good use before she’s too big to wear one.

Most of the materials came from my stash (fabric & Velcro) and I bought some really soft pink chenille from Joanns for the back of the bibs.  It wasn’t on sale, but with a 50% off coupon, a yard only cost about $7-8.  The flannel was super cheap—all the pieces were collected by me from the remnant bin that I check out every time I go in to Joanns, which is about once a week.  I found the Velcro in my sewing room stashed in a drawer.  I never used it before, but LOVE it!  There is no separate hook or loop piece.  Instead, the piece sticks to itself, so you don’t have to keep straight what piece you sew where.

The owl is my favorite bib.  I made two of these and two from the heart fabric (they were for Valentine’s, after all), so she has eight new bibs total.

The little owls have hearts on them!

I made two bibs to try out the pattern I drew before I committed to making the rest, and Ronnie wore them several times and they were washed in the washing machine and dried in the dryer, and they came out soft and cuddly and looking good as new.  I was a little worried since all the fabric came from Joanns, but I have a new faith in their flannel and chenille.

With a 1.5 yards of chenille, I was able to make 14 bibs total.  My cousin is having a baby this summer, so six of them will be for her baby if it’s a girl.  If it’s a boy, I’ll be buying some blue chenille!

Cupcake Party!

We’re having a cupcake party for Valentines.  I made this tablerunner over the weekend for the special occasion.

It measures 54” x 14”.

I found these cute red glitter buttons at Joanns on Friday (along with a few choice cuts of Aunt Edna…).

Then I did a practice run of baking the cupcakes for the party.

Lookin’ good!   The backing fabric features even more sweet treats.

Most of the fabrics used are Heidi Grace from Joanns.  I loved making this and the kids love it even more!