All American Girl

My Mom-in-law found the cutest 4th of July dresses  for the grandbabies summer picture.  Each year  on vacation we are taking pictures of the girls in matching outfits. She couldn't find a dress that matched in  Eden's size, so I made one!  ( Last year I made all three outfits, this year was much easier. Hooray! :) ) 

I took a picture of the baby's dress, then hunted down the right  fabrics. Sounds easy enough to find  navy & white stars and red & white stripes, right?  No, not really. They were a bit elusive  but I finally found the exact matches online. 

This is the baby's dress.

I used this pattern AGAIN. I know this pattern now inside & out, backwards and forwards. I have made 5 or 6 versions of this now. It is  so easy to alter and change up, each version looks different!  Eden loves each version , they have been her favorite for two years now.   When she grows out of this, we are going to have a crisis- what pattern will we go to for everything???

On July 4, Eden and I went to Michael's in search of ribbons  to put on the straps. They had nothing- we wanted stars and stripes and crazy  patriotic ribbons but it was all gone. They put it out so early and then it is all gone by the holiday.  I guess you have to get your July 4 stuff around Valentines Day. 

 (Halloween is out right now, people. It is July.  Halloween!)

We found navy ribbons and red ribbon  in the regular ribbon aisle and that had to do. 

The inside is lined in plain white cotton. I think it might even be white drapery lining...  Rock on Roclon Drapery Lining! I always have small cuttings of drapery lining hanging around. When  washed, drapery lining  does great as a clothing lining.  I didn't want to use the stripe to line it as I didn't want the stripe show thought the fabric on the outside.

Lining up the stripes was fun. I pinned at each stripe and sewed sloooooooowly. The entire bodice is topstitched  at the top edge to give it more structure. 

The ruffle was attached to the dress on the outside.  There is  about 170 inches of ruffle on the bottom edge of this dress!!!   I thought it might be too much, as I was gathering it, but Eden loves it. It is her favorite part of the dress. 

To look just like the babies dresses, I satin stitched the top edge of the ruffle in red thread. I used a short length zig zag and went over it like 8 times, around and around and around the ruffle loop. That took  forever- maybe an hour and a half. But it felt like forever, sitting there zig zagging and zig zagging and zig zagging.... 

I gathered it and attached it to the bottom of the dress skirt with two rows of stitching.  One row just didn't seem like it was going to hold up that insane amount of ruffle! 

 This is the underneath of the ruffle- I attached it to the skirt  and then just zig zagged the bottom edge of the skirt to keep it from unraveling. 

The bottom edge  of the ruffle is a rolled hem . I used the  1/4 inch size rolled hem foot.  

Here is Eden  on the deck in Nag's Head. 

My shy girl. 

The back of the dress

On the straps, I used an heirloom stitch on my machine and a wing needle. I thought it kinda looks like fireworks !

The ribbons on the straps , meant to match the little ones dresses, actually cover up a booboo. I tried to get the straps sewn on so that the stripes  went in the right order, meaning the top row of the bodice is a white stripe so the first stripe showing on the straps should have been red. Uhm.....it didn't go quite like that. After re-doing it three times after it came out crooked or on the white stripe not the red,  I said  something like "to heck with this" only a little less PG . 

I put ribbons and a button over it and done! You can't tell underneath is all crazy crooked stripes of the wrong color. :) :) !!!!

I did make this dress about an inch  big around her chest. I would like for her to get to wear it next year too.  I ended up spending a good chunk of time on a dress she has worn....3 times. By making it just a tad big, she might be able to wear it three times next year!  

So, how did the picture of all the babies turn out, you ask?

Here is the best picture!

Molly is the little one being held up by Eden and Naney is standing next to Eden. Aren't they adorable?

The ribbons on E's dress didn't end up in the photo but other than that- how cute is this??

It is extremely difficult getting a good shot of multiple babies.  They just don't get the picture taking process. "You mean you want me to stand still and smile and look at the camera? Aunt Stacye, you're so  funny!" We just wanted one picture of them all together, looking in the same-ish direction.  The photo above is the winner: all the girls in one photo, looking sort of at me.  I also got some cute, cute shots of the  girls  in their dresses looking everywhere but at me, and running in every direction!

I  love this photo- Naney is trying to grab Molly's hand and
  Molly is just trying to get back to her mommy.
 Eden is trying her best to herd the sweet
 little baby sheep together so I can take the picture!

This is my favorite photo of my baby. 

My all american girl with a gorgeous summer smile!! 

Happy Summer! 

Nina's Amazingly Awesome Dress

I MADE MY DRESS!!!!!!

Yesterday was Nina's last lesson  with me. She is moving next week. She has taken lessons with me for 2.5- 3 years.  She started with me when she was so small- now she is 13 and my height!  She  was one of the first  students I had when I first opened up my business.  I am going to miss her- she is a super creative, smart, interesting,  genuinely nice kid.   Her parents hope to move back to this area in a few years and  I really hope this happens! I would love to help Nina make her prom dress in high school! 

My business benefits from the flow of military folk coming through  the area. I always have new students. But sometimes it's a real bummer because I meet the coolest people   and then they move away. I 'm talking to you, Kristi. And Amy , Samantha. and Amanda and the rest of ya's that have moved away.  And now  Nina and her  mom Doris are moving. Stop it people. Just stop the moving.  Or you can move but you still have to come back often to see me for lessons! :)

 Nina wanted to make a summer dress for her final project with me.  She had a drawing she had done of her ideal dress and I found a pattern in my stash that matched it!   We used this pattern: 

I have used this pattern a few times to make dresses and tops for Eden.  Here she is in a  couple of them last summer:

Eden wears all of them often, she likes them as they are very cool  in the summer heat  and super comfy. 

 Nina  first made a muslin   of the dress. We made it out of plain purple cotton so that she could wear it instead of actual muslin.  We made it shirt length to test it out.  It went very well, fit perfect and  her mom says that she wears it to death! 

I knew that this dress  would fit,  I wanted her to make a muslin to  practice the techniques in the real thing. We made straps, gathered the  bottom part, made a lining. I put in the zipper.
Here she is in the practice version. She looks so lovely!

Then we moved onto the real dress. Nina chose her fabrics very carefully. Isn't it so cute on her? 

She LOVES the highlighter yellow fabric.  She told me if she could have a lot of clothes in that color, she would  be very happy. 

The rest of us  would all be blind. But she would be happy. 

She is showing off the ruffle!

Nina's Mom Doris, started taking lessons with me in the new year.  She did the gathering  where the skirt attaches to the bodice.  I was showing her how to help Nina and then  we just did it.  :)  So I think this is awesome- Mom and daughter both sewed the dress with me!

Back View 

Ruffles are the painful part of any garment for my Saturday Girls ( age 9-17) .  They want to add them onto every garment  because they are so cute but they whine like I am torturing them unmercifully when we are doing them.  I have come to realize, that it isn't that the ruffling is  hard or that they don't get it: they don't like them because  it takes a while. It is slow going.  All the pinning and thread pulling and pressing and sewing  very  very slowly  just makes them crazy.  They still choose to do them, as they are cute but I usually end up doing most of it. :)

On the bottom edge ruffle of Nina's dress , I only pinned and gathered  about a 1/4  of it.  She did all the sewing and pressing. And with almost no whining) :) :)  I was very proud of her!

Attaching the ruffle.
Look at that serious face.  She was all about that ruffle. 

I love the tickled-pink-with-herself smile. 

I bet you she doesn't take this dress off for at least a week!

My favorite part of teaching my little ones ( I am sorry Nina, I know you are thirteen and a teenager now but you are still one of my little ones)  is that look on their face when they finish up with an item and put it on. See that picture above?   That's what I'm talkin' about. 

Goodbye, Nina! 

I have enjoyed teaching you! 

Please send me pictures of what you sew without me!!!

I will miss you!

And the rest of my students, take note!!! You  are absolutely FORBIDDEN from moving away!

No more birdies flying away from the nest!