Maisie Dresses

I finally used up some of the oldest fabric in my stash. It has been sitting on my sewing table for about 8 years. My mom got a few yards of blue, Hello Kitty fabric for me to make something for my second daughter and I just never got around to it. She is 12 now, so I think the window of opportunity has passed. I have a niece who loves kitties and the color blue, so I decided to make a dress for her. I chose the Maisie dress pattern from Violette Field Threads. It was one of the patterns I chose as part of my Project Run and Play prize and I have been wanting to make one anyway. My 4yo is about the same size as my niece (they were born 2 days apart!) so she modeled it for me to take pictures. I was in a hurry and my camera settings were clearly off. So the pictures are a little funky, but I gave the dress away and couldn't take more. No amount of editing could save them.

The tie sleeves are cute, but my favorite part is the scoop back!!!

I actually ended up making two dresses, assembly line style, since I had so much of this fabric. I made the second for another niece of mine in a size 2T and chose the longer sleeves. I did make a mistake on one of the dresses, but I am not going to tell you about it. OK? Overall, this was a really cute pattern and I was happy with how they turned out.

Hipster Cat Dress

My niece just turned 5 years old and she is such a cutie pie! She has big, pink glasses and she was wanted a "kitty" birthday party. When I saw THIS fabric on Joann's website I knew that I had to make her a special dress for her birthday.

She is also very thin with long legs so I thought it would be nice for her to have something sized just for her. I decided on the Charlie dress pattern from Violette Field Threads (one of my Project Run and Play prizes!) because it has a retro feel that worked well with the fabric. It has that cute, knot detail in the front, a very full skirt, and pockets in the side seams.

I happened to have JUST ENOUGH of the pink polka dot fabric in my stash and it matched perfectly! I lined it with a matching, bubble gum pink solid. I debated on which buttons to use and took an instagram poll with the pink ones winning.

This pattern went together pretty well. I did have some trouble with the cap sleeves/enclosed side seams so I rigged it. If anyone has a technique for that, please teach me!

I wish I had had enough fabric left for the matching knot headband. Bummer! The free pattern for that is HERE if you want to check it out!

Fabric: Joann and my stash Pattern: Charlie from Violette Field Threads

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Unicorn Dresses

A few weeks ago someone absolutely destroyed my sewing scissors. I still don't know who or how it happened. I don't think that mere paper could have caused those nicks and warped the metal blades. It is a mystery.

But I was in the mood to sew something, so I turned to the pile of projects that I already had cut out.

I am not 100% happy with these, but they will probably stain and destroy them fast enough anyway. At least they are finished.

Fabric- Joann Pattern- Uptown/Downtown Dress

My girls love unicorns! If you like them too you might want to check these out...

The Unicorn Dress

If you haven't noticed, I never made Easter dresses for the rest of my girls. They don't really need more clothes, and I was kinda' burnt out after Project Run and Play. I got fabric for some of them, so we'll see what I feel like making in the future. This is my new underachiever attitude: I will sew if and when I feel like it. Isn't that how a hobby is supposed to be? The day of my youngest child's 4th birthday, I felt like sewing. I didn't have much of the unicorn fabric I had ordered for her, so I knew that I should probably sew something with it before she outgrew the fabric or her unicorn obsession. I had been stuck in that overthinking stage, but I realized that an imperfect dress was better than a piece of fabric on my shelf.

I used the free London dress pattern from Violette Field Threads. I extended the bodice and for the skirt I just used 3/4 yd of the unicorn panel cut in half. It went together really easily, although the top is a little wide under the arms. Maybe she will grow into it? It isn't perfect, but I have a feeling that she will wear this dress until it is completely stained or falls apart.

For pure silliness I photoshopped a horn on our horse, just because my daughter asked me to. Why not?

Bias tape: Joann Bodice: When Skies Are Grey by Simple Simon and Co. for Riley Blake Skirt: Unicorn Parade by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller

The Flower Girl Dress

I actually made three of them, but I don't feel comfortable posting other people's kids'  pictures on my website, so I only have pictures of the one that my daughter wore. As with any sewing project, there is more to the story. My niece asked my daughter to be a flower girl and also asked if I would sew the dresses. I love sewing pretty little girl dresses- especially matching ones- so I was excited about this project! Except, I procrastinated. Yes, I use that "P" word an awful lot here on the blog. Part of my excuse was waiting for a swatch, part of it was waiting for our difficult summer vacation to end, and part of it was other commitments that had earlier deadlines. But, really, most of the problem is my indecision.

I overthink just about every decision. I make things entirely more difficult than they need to be. Finally, when I have no time left to change my mind yet again, I just get it done. (Project Run and Play was a great exercise in this area!) So, after much debating, I went back to my original plan and sewed like the wind a few days before the wedding.

Not everyone has such confidence in my procrastinatory sewing. The bride herself, was amazingly cool about it. A few other people close to me expressed their doubts, if only in the realm of "what if you fall down the stairs and break both arms and can't sew." (Duh! That is why I teach my kids to sew!) For some reason, I was not AT ALL stressed about it. I was completely cool and confident. (A certain someone called me cocky.) Anyway, they really ticked me off!

I know that I am rude and inconsiderate for stressing other people out who may not understand who they are dealing with here, and for that, I am sorry.

But everything went FINE! I only made one, tiny, easily fixable mistake in the entire process. All three dresses were the same size, so I did them assembly line style. All of the tops were finished in about 4 hours Wednesday evening. I leisurely completed the skirts Thursday. I even threw in a bonus mother-of-the-bride dress hem. All of them fit perfectly. So... :p to those who doubted!

My rant went a little long there.

I loosely followed the Cairo dress pattern from Violette Field Threads. I own the tween pattern so I sized it down to a 3T on my own. I also wanted these to be simple, flowy, and short to complement the boots and bridesmaid dresses. So, the skirt is a layer of lining and a layer of gathered eggnog tulle.

The top is made of a satin remnant and lining fabric. I handstitched the linings closed so the elastic back is only sewn to the inside. The lace straps are from packaged hem facing. Finally, I glued a flower from the scrapbook section to felt circles and pinned it to the dress to coordinate with the wedding theme even more.

Congratulations to my niece and her new husband! Thank you for having confidence in me and letting me make these adorable dresses!!!