New Years Eve Dress

I can whip out an Oliver + S Bubble dress in no time.  From cutting out the fabric to hand stitching the bodice on the inside takes me about 2 hours.  Even modifying the Bubble Dress using McCall 5964 for the bodice and sleeves.  (Although I'm not completely happy with the sleeves.)

I've also got a love affair going with corsages.  It just seems to finish off a little girls dress.

I love how the lining floats with the outer fabric where the dress "bubbles".

At any rate, I'm sure my granddaughter will not be up at midnight with her parents on New Years Eve.  But I know who will be.....my grandson......for his 11 o'clock feeding.

Isn't he just the cutest little fellow ever?

I've got a huge container full of corduroy and his mom say's he needs overalls. Yeah! More stash bustin' projects for 2012!!

Christmas gift sewing

My 2 1/2 year old granddaughter just loves the Wizard of Oz. 

When I was her age, well, actually older than her age, that movie scared the beejeebers out of me.  The witch, her monkeys even the Wizard frightened me so much so that I hid behind the chesterfield when they appeared on the tv screen, which back in those days was black and white.

At any rate, Caitlin is not even fazed by the images in bold colour and on a huge tv screen.  She is brave like Dorothy. 
Since she loves the movie so much, for a Christmas gift I made her a dress like Dorothy's complete with (store bought) ruby slippers and a basket containing with Toto. (Yeah for on-line ordering!)

I made the dress large enough to fit over her regular clothes.

Here she is on Christmas Day wearing the Oliver + S Bubble Dress and velvet shrug I made earlier. She is opening the Wizard of Oz dress-up outfit.

Well, it was a hit and off came the Christmas bubble dress on on went the Dorothy dress!

And there she goes ..... off to see the Wizard .... or at least wade through the quagmire of wrapping.

She wore the dress all day long and through Christmas dinner.

And as for the ruby slippers, she clicked her heels together many times..........

'cuz there's no place like home!

I used the Basic Bodice dress by Collars Etc. for the Dorothy dress pattern adding longer sleeves, a zipper opening at the back and a separate waistband sash with straps.  For the collar I simply cut a strip of fabric on the bias and added ric rac. Size 2.

Christmas Dress #3

Using the Oliver + S Bubble Dress pattern for the skirt and McCalls 5964 for the bodice , here is Christmas dress number 3.

The devil made me buy this red party fabric.  It was on sale, I was convinced, for exactly the amount of spare change I had in my pocket.  And besides, it was sparkly and Christmassy looking, even my better judgement couldn't resist.

However I used black cotton for lining and black velvet for the bodice all from my stash.  Therefore, I feel somewhat redeemed.

I made a little rosette from the fabric.  I cut a strip about 30cm long (12 inches) and 5cm wide (2 inches) folded the fabric in half and ran a basting stitch using strong quilting thread along the raw edge.
Then slowly, pull on the thread at one end to gather and roll until the fabric looks like a rose.  Then stitch in the middle to hold everything together.  I put a button in the centre as well and then stitched it to the bodice.

The dress is size 2.
I only needed a small amount of the red fabric for the skirt. But all the black cotton and black velvet got used up and has made way for the red fabric that's now left over!

Christmas dress #2

My daughter came with me to Fabricland and she picked out the fabric for a Christmas dress.
Using Oliver + S pattern, Bubble dress, here's the dress.  I'm pleased with the results.

And it looks good on Caitlin.  It's size 2.
Because it has a capped sleeve, I ordered some sage green velvet from On-line fabric  to make a shrug.

The order was sent right away and I will certainly use them again if I need to get something that isn't in my stash.
Using McCalls 5964 in size 2, I whipped up the shrug.  It's a little small, so next time I'll make size 3.

The velvet is stretchy so for the lining,  I used a stretchy fabric I found in the 'slinky' bin at Fabricland.

Mom likes the dress. Caitlin likes the dress.  Grandma loves the fabric.