A dress for a little girl

I really enjoy making things for other people. Sometimes I find it much more difficult to launch into a project for myself than to begin something for a friend or family member. In a moment of inspiration I decided to make this dress for my friend's little girl. I don't get to see my friend or this little girl nearly as much as I'd like but I get regular updates in the form of photos and videos and this keeps me in the loop.

This little girl will soon be welcoming a new family member and I thought it might be nice to deliver a gift to her around this time. No doubt life will be focused on the new little one (how can it not...) for the first couple of weeks and maybe this will remind her that she's still the first and still super special.

I tried to add a few special details to this dress, which include a decorative hem and rickrack ribbon added to the sleeves. The dress is inspired by the beautiful items in the mette store on etsy. Yes, go there now and drool. Beautiful, simple dresses and other delightful things.

Simplicity 2593 and Vivat Veritas Dress

I actually made something for myself that I like. You probably can't imagine how very rare this is. I mean I make things for myself but they often quickly fall into the category "Oh, gee, that was a nice attempt but of course you would never wear that in public." I think I will wear this in public, and proudly.

On Friday I was feeling a little directionless so I went to Fabricland, bought some of this navy and white floral pattern for $7/metre and a couple of Simplicity patterns to work with and I made this top. Ok, as usual I cheated in multiple ways. The fabirc I had was much too slippery to make your own binding (which this pattern requires) but luckily I had some double wide bias tape kickin' around that I used instead. I kind of like the details it gives the top by encircling the armholes.

I'd seen on multiple different reviews that the ruffle was difficult to attach, but I didn't have too much trouble. Sometimes I think anticipating that it will give me trouble allows me to take my time and employ a little patience that I wouldn't normally. I must say, the hanger doesn't really do it justice ;)

 I also practiced a litttle patience with the Vivat Veritas Big Button Dress I was making for my sister. I pretty much undid every seam that had been sewn. I added a 3 inch band to the arms so that the sleeves would be more sleeve-like and I made an insert at the shoulder seam of nearly 2 inches. This brought the whole dress down a bit and is a much more attractive neckline for my sister. She tried it on and there are still a couple of things that need doin' but we're real close and I think it looks super cute on her (all it needs are some really big earrings!)

Ok, that's enough winter ...

Is there anything more hopeful in the world then the Spring time change? Okay I realize that I may be the only one who is this happy to lose an hour in the day in the hopes of more daylight after I get home from work... but WOW it's pretty amazing. It's a real renewal.

I've been doing some sewing (mostly on the top secret project that is in its 2nd year of production... ugh) and a little birthday sewing for the multitude of people who are born in March and who are relatives/friend of mine. I think it's a conspiracy. Just thought I would pop by to this space and post pictures of some finished clutches/makeup bags for my two friends. I like them... probably should have used firmer interfacing to give them a little more structure. Hindsight. Hm.

Pretty though if I do say so myself. I used the "Lacy Clutch" pattern in the STITCH Spring 2010 magazine. It's Rebekah Lambert's pattern, I believe of ArtsyCrafty Babe, a blog I read regularly. Warning, there are some errors in the pattern and attaching the zipper to the lining is less than instinctual but it does work. What doesn't work is placing the final step of putting the shell inside the lining and sewing as directed... you're seam will be on the outside. Trust me. Instead put wrong sides together (lining inside out, shell right side out but placed inside the lining) and that will work.

When it all doesn't come together

Okay, well, some of it comes together. But not the part where I continue to do the dishes, laundry, cleaning, bills kind of together. I sort of neglect different things as I go along. At the beginning of the week, I think, hmmm... what to neglect this week? The answer... dishes. So a big messy pile of them sit in my sink and there they will stay until I get home tomorrow at 6. I guess I'm a little bit embarassed about that, but not much!

I finally made a little progress on the table runner/wall hanging thing I was making out of those beautiful Kyle's Marketplace fabrics. I think I'm heading towards wall-hanging because at the moment I sew in my kitchen and it seems like a piece of art that works as a segway between this room's dual purpose.

 Obviously the project is still in process, but I like what's come out of it so far. Still need to attach the batting and do some quilting on the darn thing. Ergh, I find the quilting a little daunting... nevermind, I'll push it out of my mind for the moment.

Here is a close-up shot of the fabric my sister and I picked out for a dress I'm making her. It's the big button dress from Vivat Veritas' site.

Here's the project as it comes along. Does that look like a toddler's dress to you?
A word of warning if you are ever going to attempt this pattern... if you are petite never shorten the top part so much that the dress becomes a straight jacket. Second, remember that the person who drafted this pattern is very petite and her ideas of reasonable measurements may not be your idea of reasonable measurements. Just saying ... I'm looking into ways of increasing the top part. I may unstitch at the shoulder seam and add a 3 inch section *yes it's that small* or I may unpick the top part and cut out a new one. Luckily I have enough fabric for that.

The nice part about sewing is that almost everything is salvageable if you're patient enough to figure out what to do with it. At least I hope so...