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!

The itchy, see through, floppy fabric Perfect Shirt

Donna, my awesome Tuesday night student :) , chose this  shirt pattern to make for our current project together. We looked through my patterns and  this one really appealed to her. I have had it in my stash for a  while, I just hadn't gotten around to making it yet. This shirt has no buttons or zippers so again she avoids closures of any kind (The next item will have a zipper. Or buttons or anything. You can't avoid them forever, Donna! :) :) ) I liked all of the options that the pattern came with.

 I like to have made a pattern made up at least once before I teach it, to work out any issues  it may have.  So I got to making a shirt real quick before the next weeks lesson with Donna. 

I made a shirt but Donna is converting the pattern over to a nightgown. She has planned for it to be white eyelet , much longer and  flared out at the bottom. She is using the flutter sleeves for extra comfortableness.  ( Is that a word- comfortableness? Did I just make up a word?) 

I did not make a muslin with this.  I'm such a risk taker! No not really. This pattern didn't have any darts or any thing I needed to work out, so  I just fit as I sewed. I added some extra room to the front gather under the inset when I cut it out and moved the gather mark up the neckline.  I took up a lot in   the shoulders and the back seam .  That's it. 

 The fabric I found  I really like. It is flowy and very nice for spring and summer.   It was also   sooooo flip floppy when working with it.  I could not get it to stay in place when cutting , or pinning, or any of the process. 

For the inset, I used an  iron on  tear away stabilizer applied to the wrong side of the fabric,  to apply the lace.  I tried it without stabilizer on a test piece and it slip-slided all over the place. I couldn't get the lace straight. Because there are little stripes in the fabric, it is very obvious when the lace was crooked. 

Soooooo I iron on the stabilizer and stitched the vintage lace on with tiny zig zag stitches. They disappear nicely into lace. 

The lace is vintage lace collected over the years from thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales and who knows where else I got it from. I have had it forever. I use little pieces in projects here and there.  

 I tried it on after I got the sleeves basted in and was going to wear it during a lesson one morning to test it out before I finished off the seams, but I ended up tearing it off after a few minutes . It itched so bad!!!    It was insanely itchy!! There are little tiny clear threads running through the fabric which gives it a really  neat tiny shimmer in the sun.  However those little tiny clear threads are evil little imitators. Any cut edge of fabric  that touched my skin  had those little tiny threads in it. Sooooooo each seam in this shirt is either french seams or bias tape / binding covered. Every one. Not a raw edge anywhere. Even  where the bubble on the end of the sleeve attaches- all covered in binding. So my quick  little shirt which should have taken no time at all took a few days.

Inside the shirt, the seam allowances are covered in bias  tape binding.

     The edges of the neckline are in binding of the same fabric but packaged bias tape could be used in place of  it and look awesome. I pulled out some black bias tape to see if I could do it on this shirt but  the blacks were different .  :(  However, on Donna's nightgown, white bias tape will be used.  This will speed up the construction time on this a lot.

     The sleeves were super puffy on the first go round. I had added some extra room in the sleeves for my massive shoulders  and that created a some super pouf at the  top sleeve seam. I risked the itchiness and put it back on to take this  picture of the sleeves before I took them off.  Those sleeves were  costumy. I wanted a vintage feel to the shirt but sometimes too many details can look like  a costume.

      I like the bubble a the bottom of the sleeve.  I wasn't sure about it when I was making it but after wearing it a couple of times- it is very comfortable.

Here are  the sleeves getting ready to have the binding attached and some top edge  'pouf ' removed. .

      I took pictures outside this time as it is a black shirt and those haven't been showing up too well in photos inside my dark dungeon house. Here is the shirt in full sun so you can see all the details ... and right through it.

Look Dad! I am on the Internets in a see-through shirt!


When the photos loaded up on the computer I realized this shirt is see through. (My husband: Yea I noticed that, I thought you knew.  Me: Noooooooooooo I did not know it was this see through. Thanks for the heads up on that one,  honey :) )  And the majorly see through part isn't even on good stuff- like my boobs. :) :)  It highlights my stomach.  Not groovy.  In the wearings after these photos were taken, I wore a black undershirt. Problem solved. :)

This  is as glamorous as it gets, standing in the front yard, in the overgrown winter garden, in a see through shirt whilst the elderly neighbor walks his dog past.

I love this shirt. After solving the  King Henry sleeve pouf and the Itchy and Scratchy  problems it has become the Perfect Shirt.  It is extremely comfortable and  I have worn it  many times now. 

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 ! :) :)