one of those days....

Gracie starts preschool on Monday.  This is only important because I promised her a new dress to wear the first day of school, and she requested a pink Winnie the Pooh dress.  I chose a 1983 pattern-- McCalls 8859.  It was interesting, and I kinda liked the look of the short sleeve version.  Of course, I updated it a bit--a wider neckline, longer, one fabric only, and no flower appliques.  I spent a lot of time tracking down some vintage pewter Pooh buttons and I'm finishing it off with some faux "frogs" that go between the buttons.

And it's in the only pink Pooh fabric I could find.  It has the most complex pleat system I've ever seen, combined with piping down the princess seams.  First in today's comedy of errors, my buttonhole/piping/cording foot has gone missing.  I know what happened to it--she'll be fifteen months old in three days and she goes by Nikki.  I love her to pieces, but like her sister before her, she picks up things and hides them.  I still haven't found all the bias tape that Gracie hid at that age!  Sewing frustrated is a bad idea.  Very, very, very bad idea.  I sewed through my right pointer finger.  And not just a nick--I had to physically remove the needle and then cut the thread so I could pull that out, too!


I lost the sleeves more than once.  After I got the pieces of the princess seams sewn together and serged, I discovered that my lack of the proper foot had screwed me up and I had to redo the piped seams.  Which meant hand sewing for two and a half hours.  And during this I clipped myself with the point of my shears.

It's not finished yet.  The sleeves are pinned in, and all six frogs are pinned on so  I can't lose them.  I'm about to do something similar to the baggie of Pooh buttons!  Here's hoping that tomorrow is better--I still have Nikki's new dress to make, and Gracie needs a blanket to take to school with her!

Summer dresses!

Okay, so I currently only have one.  :)   And it's Nikki's.  But hey, I'm cutting out one for Gracie today because they both need some pretty dresses for Church.  This particular one is Simplicity 2376.  It was one of those patterns that went out of print fast--I mean, it was only really available one season, while they still have some patterns in print that I bought when Bit was a baby.  My only real complaint is the fact that it fastens with a zipper.  I mean really!  A zipper on a baby dress?  Granted, this is technically a toddler dress, even if it is the smallest size.  And it's not alone.  Winter dresses for the girls will be including dresses for Nikki that have zippers, too.

The only thing I purchased for this dress specifically was the purple, 9" zipper. Everything else came from my stash--like most people who sew, I have a habit of picking up fabric I like when I can get it cheaply.  And I knew that my SIL loves both purple and plaids, so I knew it would be a hit.  I might have to make a bow for Boo to wear in her hair--she kept trying to put the dress bow in her hair yesterday before I sewed it on and got mad when it fell out!

Next up, a vintage sundress for Gracie!

Whoops, I did it again!

This is the needle that sewed through my finger this weekend.  It doesn't hurt this time, but then again--it's not a double needle.  It'll be going out with the garbage in the morning!  It just goes to show that you can still make mistakes after sewing for years, and klutziness is eternal!

Happy Independence Day!

I meant to have dresses made for the girls to show off today, along with a tutorial on pattern hacking to get matching dresses, but the past two weeks have been so insane that I never even managed to get them cut out.  So happy Independence Day, anyway, and here's a project from last year!

This is a favorite summer sundress pattern around here, and I was going to "fix" a pinafore pattern to make a matching one for Nikki.  The fabric for this year was different and since I have five yards, will probably keep until next year!  ($1.50/yard from Wal-Mart plus red broadcloth = inexpensive dresses!)