New day, new blog

I've been on LiveJournal for fandom for years. I write fanfiction, though my writing time has gotten nibbled away at over the years and I no longer write as much as I used to. Nowadays, I sew. Frankly, it's easier to keep an eye on my niece and sew than it is to write! I'm handicapped and homebound, so sewing is something I can actually do. And well, I don't remember a time when I didn't sew. Mom gave me one lesson, and I had one other lesson as a teenager at church, and I've gone to a few quilting classes, but otherwise I'm a self-taught, trial-and-error kind of sewist. Until last Christmas, I never even owned a sewing book! I've figured out ways to make things work for me that sometimes go against conventional sewing wisdom. I've picked up things from sewing instructions that work pretty much any kind of sewing. I've discovered that some of the things I've done for years are labeled as "heirloom", which I think is just plain weird.

I'm keeping my fandom Live Journal, but I decided that I needed to separate the two. So here we are--my brand new blog! The shiny hasn't rubbed off it yet and I have plans for it... What I mostly make are little kids' clothes for my nieces and nephew. Modern, vintage, and everything in between. I make what I like and if it's from the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s or 80s, so be it. (The nightgown pictured above that Gracie is wearing is 60s.) The project I'm currently working on is this one:

Pretty isn't it? I'm making view 2 with the collar from view 1. I lengthened the whole thing by five inches to make it below Gracie's knees (she'll grow and I don't want it too short too fast) and made some changes to construction. I'm considering entering it into the Sewing for Children contest over on Pattern Review. I figure why not? And I'm pairing it with a vintage underwear pattern because my SIL can always use more diaper covers, even if they are one size bigger than Gracie is, and slips for toddlers are near impossible to find anymore.

I have this in size 3, too, to go with the size 3 dress. I need to make up a set in size 2 soon, though, because I made Evie three vintage dresses for the Vintage contest. I quilt, too, sometimes, usually as presents for people. In fact, most of my sewing is for other people. The last thing I made for me was a pair of pants around this time last year. Soon, I'm going to start posting things about sewing process and the like. :) I'm documenting making this latest dress for the curious and I'll even post pictures of the inside once I'm done with it.