Molly's Birthday Dress

My niece  Molly will be one year old this month!  I made her a birthday dress & coat.

 I used a Simplicity re-issue 2629 from 1948. I made the little dress in the upper right corner of the pattern envelope and the pink  jacket  pictured under that to go over it. 

  

I followed the pattern  except I cut the dress much shorter. Molly is crawling a lot and I didn't want the dress to be so long that it caught up under her knees and could hinder her crawling . Babies get very annoyed by that! I added pin tucks by the bottom hem.  I also added a lining to the inside of the coat .  The lining makes it much more comfortable to wear and much easier to get on and a wiggly baby! :)
Here she is in the dress:

I embroidered little bunnies onto the dress & jacket. 

 The instructions for the bunnies are in  Sew Cute Couture. This book is lovely to look  at but I doubt I will ever do any of the smocking in the book.  Seems very   time consuming. I love some of the embroidered embellishments  in the book. It uses buttons and embroidery and they are all adorable.  The simplicity pattern came with a pretty floral design but I  liked the bunnies better. The bunnies are boullion knots with lazy daisies for ears.  I love these bunnies for a baby item, even better as it is near Easter!

Those were the tiniest buttons I have ever sewn onto anything. 

The pintucks were very time consuming as they needed to be just perfect to look right.
I love the tiny lace on the sleeves.  I bought the tiniest lace I could find. 

Here is the little jacket over the dress.

Some of the purple fabric marker is still  visible around the bunnies.
I marked lines on the fabric so the bunnies were evenly spaced  and level. 

The lining was not attached yet. 

The entire lining was  hand sewn in. I didn't want any stitch lines visible on the outside. 

The sleeves are pinned up and ready to be hand sewn in. 

I put a little label in the jacket  & the dress.
It has the year on it so it can be dated in later years. I am going to try to
 put labels in everything I make from now on. 

Inside out front

Inside out back 

Molly was getting sleepy as it was near bedtime.

I was very happy the little coat fit her perfectly! I made the 12 month size and  hoped for the best.

 Molly loved the coat hanger  best of all. 

Sleepy baby. 

When it warms up a bit, I am going to take more pictures of Moly in her dress and then turn them to black & white. If I print them on super glossy paper and rough the up a touch, they will look like 1948 prints ! :) :)

Saturday Girls

 Today was a wonderful day! Today is Saturday and I teach 5 girls throughout the day starting at 9, ending at 4:30.  Today all the girls remembered all of their stuff, sewed slowly and carefully and had fun! I love days like this! 

I am so proud of them, I took pictures today to show off thier creations

At 9 am each Saturday Kayla comes  dancing in the door.  She is so much fun to start the day out with. She makes sure I am awake! She finished her  apron today! Kayla did such a wonderful job of stitching the bias tape onto the edges of the apron

See me in the reflection of the mirror? I am waving at you! :) 

 Kayla added buttons onto the top part of her apron for embellishment. We had planned a pocket but  she changed her mind and just wanted to add  buttons.

 See me again? Behind Kayla?

Izzy is next at 10:30. Today we covered her sewing notebook. I am having each girl keep  a sewing notebook. I write in it each week what we did, homework and our plan for next time. It helps to keep them ( and me! )  on track with what we are doing. We use a plain black & white composition notebook and cover it with a  fabric of their choice.  It is a great one hour project  and they love to use it each week.

Izzy is cutting out her interfacing. 

Izzy chose a piece of leftover fabric from my daughter's  bedroom valances.  I keep all fabric scraps. :)  They are great for projects like this that don't need too much fabric.
Izzy did a fantastic job of hemming the inside  pieces and slowly stitching around the entire  cover!

The outside of her notebook

The inside cover of her notebook. 

Nine is at 12. I am so proud of Nina today!!! But look at these photos- Nina  is even more proud of herself. Look at her smile!  This is the practice version  we made to test out a pattern for a summer dress. We made a shirt first just to check for fit. 

Nina really used her sewing skills on this one-  gathering,  a nice hem, creating straps- she did it all herself! I did put in the zipper for her, we haven't covered those yet.  She will shop for fabric for her dress this next two weeks and we then  start on her  dream version. 

We had 10 minutes left in lesson and she decided that the shirt just needed something. So we looked in my ribbon  box and she found a ribbon that she liked and  we added it where the bodice connects to the lower part of the shirt. She is also going to add buttons where the straps meet the top of the bodice.
I just love how  confident she looks! She is so happy with her work and she should be!

 That smile is fantastic! She is so proud of what she made!

Tori is at 2. She is working on her Pajama pants. Here she is cutting the material. We have already made the muslin version, tested it for fit, altered the pattern to make those adjustments and are on on the real thing. I love the fabrics she chose. She is  doing a black & orange zebra print on one leg and black on the other leg.  They are going to be awesome!!!

I did get a picture of Tori smiling but she would not want me to post it here-  I caught her mid laugh so.... not the most flattering angle! :)  So you get serious Tori face as she is  cutting out her fabric. 

Haley comes to lesson at 3:30. Haley is finishing up her circle skirt.  She is my last lesson  of the day and such a sweet girl- I really enjoy teaching her.  :)

Haley learned the  lesson of wash your fabric before you make your item with this skirt . She found a lovely fabric with small flowers on it, washed the fabric and the flowers disappeared!! She still wanted to use it for the skirt,  so we did but  it is good that the fading happened before she made the skirt. 

Haley put in a lovely half inch double fold hem on her circle skirt. 

The front of her skirt

The back of her skirt. 

The skirt isn't totally finished. We just need to finish off the button flaps and stitch down the waistband.

I told her to please tell her dad that I did not plan  for this skirt to be this short! :) :)  She wanted it this way . She promised me to wear leggings underneath :) !

this week

I love to see in progress photos on other sewing blogs. So I thought  I would put one.
I took  pictures of my sewing room as it pretty much has everything  out that I am working on :

  Mid picture is a chair with leftover bits of red, blue and floral home dec fabric. I am making chair pouches for my daughters third grade class.  Those kids are tough on their pouches, I repair them sometimes but her teacher asked for new ones so as I come up with leftover fabric bits, I am  using them to make the pouches. . 

Next to the chair are green & brown cushions. Those are for my mom in laws deck benches- these cushions have taken a couple of weeks to make.  They are  100 inches long and I designed them with a  hinge  attachment in the center so they fold up very neatly as well as ties to tie them to the bench.  All that is left on those is  to put them on the benches and  then fold the ties to the right length and add velcro so she can easily take them on & off the benches. Here they are yesterday, I took them over to check over everything.

I hadn't sewn the cushion together yet,
but I did take over the top piece so I could check for tie placement. 

The cushion fits perfectly!

To the right of the cushions is  dress & coat for my niece for her birthday in march. I used a repro 1948 pattern and embroidered bunnies on the front.. I have taken TONS of pictures of these sweet little things. and will post them soon ( after her birthday- her momma might read this and I don't want her to see it yet:) )   Under that is a purse that is being made as an example for a lesson. 

My beautiful baby, my sewing machine sits on its padded stool. It is rarely off the table, but when it is, it has a cushy spot to rest. 

hmmm.  The picture is a bit grainy. sorry :) 

I finished the sewing room valance this week! Look at that thing- it is huge! 105 inches long finished.  I hand made every rose. 16 of them!   Right now the edges are pinned down  to train the trim at the bottom to stay folded where I want them to. I will have better pictures of the valance when it is completely done . Underneath the valance, I installed a traverse rod ( changed the draw from right to left, go me!)  and sometime in the next year or so I will make floor length  pinch pleat panels to go on the rod.  

To the right of the valance hanging on the door , is  the Father Christmas coat. After wearing it during the holidays, my dad had a few small adjustments he wanted me to  make: I added buttons down the front  (just for some extra oomph), I am adding belt loops ( the belt wouldn't stay up unless he tied it too tight to be comfortable ), a snap in the back to keep the hood in place (  The hood is so big that it sometimes  falls in his face :), and making a hat. Just a small round hat.  I have to get more velvet to make the hat. Somehow I thought I had more of the fabric left, like a yard & a half, but  I looked through my fabric closet ( ransacked. tossed fabrics in all directions. had the entire sewing covered in piles of fabric.) and   I couldn't find it.  So the hat is on hold until I make it back out to Joann's in greenbrier. Next week maybe. 

On the table is  sweaters and pants  that need buttons sewn back on - they belong to an older neighbor. He is a sweet man and  since his wife passed, he has had no one to sew on his buttons. He is very happy I am across the street now :) Then behind those,  there is the pattern and fabric for a pair of boxer shorts for my hubby. I am going to make them for his birthday. I am making a practice pair out of some skull fabric as a practice pair and then once he has worn them and given me feedback on how they fit   I will make a pair out of Doctor  Who fabric! 

He picked this fabric- Melting TARDIS.

No shot of my sewing room would be complete without my buddy, Sophie.  She is by my side all day long.

My devoted  sewing assistant. She keeps me safe from squirrels.

 I went to an estate sale this morning in my dream house. It is  in our neighborhood  and I walk by it weekly and   sigh.  This house is lovely  and I want it. I will never be able to buy it so  I went to the estate sale mostly just to see inside of my house  ( it should be my house). I love to go to estate sales in my neighborhood because  the lady of the house always had a sewing stash - I just have to find it.  Today they had the sewing stuff in the garage. So I was out there for a while sorting through boxes of sewing implements. Most of it junk but  I found these two mini bolts of trims- perfect for my purses! For $2 a piece!!

2 Jasmines

I am unhappy with my curent wardrobe.  There, it is out there. I have stated it for the universe to hear. I don't feel like me in it.   Somewhere after I had Eden  I started wearing jeans  and t-shirts all the time . I had never been a jeans person before- I have always preferred skirts & dresses. But as a new mommy, jeans were play friendly, easy, and cheap. Now she is 9 and here I site typing away in my wine me up and watch me go t-shirt ( very appropriate T for me, - thanks dad :) )  and  red corderoy jeans. Blah. 

So I have come up with a plan. A wardrobe plan. I am going to make two items of clothing a month  for me. And they won't be jeans and t-shirts!! ( though Sewaholic has a new knit pattern that I might try :) )  I have decided that I want to go back to how I dressed before I  had a daughter and learned how to bake and then eat cupcakes  and cookies  and brownies and all that stuff little girls love to make.  To sum up - the way I dressed before I got happy and  fat :)

 Yea, I work from home so I don't have to  be too dressy but still.. I miss fun clothes.  Sooooooo I am going to make them!  Because  I can! I am going to make a minimun of two garments a month- a top and a bottom  and at least one fancy date dress for the year.

I am actively going to build my wardrobe of items that I actually want. What a concept!

Each morning when I stand in front of the closet and  choose my clothing from the 5 pieces that actually fit , I am goingt to think about what I would like to be in there.  First up, I need shirts. Not t shirts. Shirts that fit.  Cute easy shirts that can go with anything. 

 I  found  this blouse in the  Victorian Trading Company catalog a while back.  It is $59.99 and available only in white.   I cut it out of the catalog and pinned it up on my noteboard in the sewing room as an idea of a shirt to make.  It looks like a swiss dot in this photo but when you use the magnify feature on the site, it is actually an eyelet lace

the shirt and pants up on my pin board.

  The Jasmine blouse pattern from Colette patterns is the closest pattern I have found to recreating it. It has the tie, the cute sleeves and the shape. The pattern does not button up the front but that is ok, I can always add a button placket to  it.

Colette  Jasmine

I trudged through the depths of Joann's and Hancock's to find a fabric and only came up with a swiss dot.  It was on sale half price so  it was $5 a yard. I bought three yards so this shirt was $15. Compared to the $59.99 at VTC .   It made up quite nicely in Version 1- here it is!

Look ! It ties!

I shortened the sleeves quite a bit because I don't think that almost-to-the-elbow-sleeve that the pattern comes with  is flattering on me and I also wanted to re-create the white  top.    I lengthened the fabric tie by about 4 inches and also made it slimmer. I slightly altered the  collar too, angled it in near the front. After I wore it once, I went back in and chopped about an inch off the inside facing- jeeeez it was huge.

Yes, funky  colored photo- I weirded them up a little so you can see the details of the black shirt. 

Detail of the collar

 I love this shirt. It is so comfortable to wear! And flattering, I think.  Making it was wonderful- there are no closures to create!  The pattern was great as I didn't have to alter the main body pieces at all!  The darts were even in the right place! That  never  happens to me so this was like  the paterrn equivelent of winning the lottery! It is cut on the bias which  makes it very comfortable as the fabric  has so much more give on the bias.   I have noticed in wearing it that I need to alter the neckline of the next one I make, as it can tend to bow out a bit, exposing a bit more cleavage than I  intend to. ( A bit of exposure is fine- 'hey I can see you belly button down your shirt' is not fine  :) :) )  And the next version I make will not have the neck  facings, I think they made  the neckline kinda stiff- I might just bias wrap the  edges instead. 

I want to make it out of an eyelet fabric , a thin velvet and a print. For each shirt I can change the neckline a bit, make it round, make it square, omit the tie, omit the collar, change the collar shape, change the sleeves, etc. Not one of these shirts will look alike :)



Jasmine #2


I found an awesome print at Joann's last week.  It is all synthetic- no cotton in sight here! It is going to be a  pain to sew.   It is  soooooooo slippery. I bought an extra half yard in case I flub up the neckline, which I am sure is going to happen.  I always mess up collars in slippery fabrics so I just go ahead and plan for it now! :) :) Plus it is synthetic which means at some point I am going to melt a sleeve or the collar  while  pressing.  I always melt synthetics- I think I have the iron cool enough but I never do...
But look! It isn't solid black!!!  There is black in it but look- there are other colors!!! Yea me! :)

I have already cut it out and the pieces are hanging over a chair down in the sewing room waiting for me to  get drunk enough , I mean, waiting for me to sigh a big sigh of 'here we go' and sew it.  I cut the Sleeves of version 2 this time- so no gathering in the sleeves.

Two weeks later....
 I finished it! :) Ahm..there is gathering in the sleeves- somehow I thought sleeve #2 would be sleeker. It isn't. It stands up there. Next one I make I will get rid of that little pouf at the top of the sleeve. It isn't terrible, it is kinda cute, but I do want them sleeker.
I changed up the entire collar. I did cut one like the black shirt but I made it much narrower.  It was terrible. This fabric is sooo slick, the collar was all kinds of crooked. I tried to rip the stitches out to fix it but it was impossible so I scraped it and started over. I cut looooong  bias strips and sewed them into a mini collar. I also raised the neckline up a bit- after wearing the black shirt a bit, it noticed it gapes open when I lean over my sewing table. Not good.
The fabric was a royal pain. But it feels super nice on. Almost slinky! All of the seams are french seams so it is nice & smooth on the inside.

I feel like Peggy Olson in this shirt. My hubby and I have been watching Mad Men lately and I am smitten with the clothes. Each episode I will  say at least once- ooo I like that dress. I do like Betty's clothes and of course every single thing Joan has on is to die for but I really relate to Peggy's wardrobe.
I love the little bow collars and cute sleeves. Hence what you see here :)

Just so ya'll know- I feel really goofy  doing these photos. 

Eat your heart out Joan Holloway. 

And that's my two jasmine's!