Twirl-ability

Lately, the measure of my sewing ability is if the dress twirls. Well, here's the test.

First the wind-up........

 ....then let 'er twirl!

She really liked this dress as well but getting a photo proved difficult.
Here's the back as per the tutorial I previously posted.

And here's the front.

But she didn't want to play tea party ......

...she wanted to twirl!

This photo is out of focus, I know, and who wouldn't be after all that twirling?

Notes to self:
Vintage Natalie dress fits just a little on the roomier side in size 3. Perfect for long time use w/blouse underneath for cooler weather. Make more; maybe in pinwale corduroy or viyella. Mom didn't like patterned piping. Gah!
Basic Bodice dress fit exact in size 3. Back treatment worked perfectly. Mom wants more of same with big sash.

Tea Party Dress

I've had this tea party themed fabric in my stash for such a long time. I bought it with the intention to use it as backing for a child's quilt.  But I'm just not a quilter so it's been sitting in my stash waiting for another project.

Well, the other day my internet sewing friend Sharon posted this tutorial found here.  
It gave me inspiration so I dug down deep in the abyss of the turquoise fabric box and unearthed the tea party fabric.

I have a tea set for Caitlin that's lime green and turquoise, so this will be a perfect outfit for dress-up when we have tea in the Gazebo.

Truth be known, the image reminds me of myself pouring imaginary tea for my childhood and lifelong friend Kathy. When we were kids, we played tea party for hours on end.

So here's the finished dress with piping (of course) on the arm and neck opening.

While I was sitting on the rock stairs taking this photo, mom Blue Jay and one of her fledglings landed beside me.
I think this is her second brood because it's so late in the season to see young Jays. And speaking of the unusual (or maybe proof of global warming) is the presence of many Common Buckeye butterflies that rarely appear here. They've even been spotted north of Lake Superior which is in the Boreal Forest.

None of this has anything to do with sewing though.

Nor does this photo.
Beside where the Jays landed is a bench with a basket of Iceberg Pansies and I have long blamed the local deer eating the blooms.  Not any more.  It's Chippy who is the culprit!

Okay, back to sewing.  The pattern I used was Bodice Dress by Collars Etc.  I omitted the collar on view 4 and used Sharon's directions.

I made it size 3.

Okay, so now I'm going to go jump in the lake because it's outrageously hot and humid here again. And when I dry off ... tea in the Gazebo of course!

Sewing again.

I had a request for a Rapunzel outfit from 2 year old Caitlin.  In my stash I found mauvey pink dupioni silk, leftover from a Grade 8 graduation dress I made back in the mid-90's.  Then after a quick trip to Fabricland, I found some mauvey pink cuddle satin, sparkly mauvey pink something-or-other fabric and pink ribbon along with some pink rat-tail cording.

Using Collars Etc. pattern Bodice Dress, I whipped this outfit up in just a few hours.  The left sleeve looks puckered, but it's not. I overlooked fixing it before I took the shot.  Oh well.  And now that I look at the photo again, the hem looks puckered too. 

Based on the dress from Tangled.

On the sleeve, I stitched rows of pink ribbon on the dupioni sleeve portion and inserted both the dupioni and sparkly fabric at the same time.  There isn't any elastic in the dupioni cuff because Caitlin might be wearing a long sleeved t-shirt under the dress when the weather get colder.

For the bodice front, I cut one from cuddle satin and one from dupioni.  Cutting the dupioni portion in half, folding in the edges, I stitched on loops of pink ribbon so the rat-tail cord could be woven through and then basted it to the front cuddle satin piece.

The front skirt is layers of cuddle satin, the sparkly fabric and side front panels and back of dupioni with mauve lace joining the skirt and bodice.  The skirt is long because Caitlin will most likely wear pants under the dress on cold days.

Lastly, I stitched mauve lace along the bottom of the dupioni skirt sections.

As good luck would have it, I found a purple crown although it looks blue in the photo.

So now Caitlin has a fun little dress-up outfit to wear when she's in a Princess mood!

This is first sewing I've done since the ice went out last April.  Now that autumn is in the air and gardening season is just about done,  I'll be reacquainting myself with my machine.  There are lots of projects I have in mind .... right after the falling leaves get raked.

Bright spring dress.

Despite setting my camera on "beach/snow' there is still a lot of glare from the snow on the ground.  While this dress is bright orange it's not as glaring as this photo suggests.  Oh well.

I was able to whip this one up in just a few hours.  The piping took the most time.

I omitted the collar as shown in the pattern.  I wasn't sure what colour the collar should be, so I just left it off.
I made Size 1. 

Here's my messy sewing room. It's been a slow process using up my stash, however, I've stumbled on another way to 'bust my stash'.

On the weekend, my son came to visit bringing three friends with him.  One of the friends, a girl, after seeing my sewing space commented on how she was planning to make a baby quilt using black and white toile. So I reached into a box a pulled out about a 1/2 meter of b&w toile as well as some accent fabric.  I was able to give her more than enough to make a baby quilt.

Then she commented on how she doesn't have a sewing machine.  So I gave her one. Plus a rotary cutter, a large quilters plastic ruler and a bunch of quilting books. I'm happy those items went to a good home!

On a sewing blog that I follow, a woman has the same type of doors (and shelves) as I do.  I'm only posting the door so she can see the similarity.  These aren't exactly your run of the mill doors, hence the uniqueness of the similarity.

First Christmas dress completed.

This is a pattern I've wanted to try out for a long time.  So this week, I found time and using this pattern made a Christmas dress for Catlin.

This plaid cotton has a thin thread of gold throughout giving it a little sparkle.  There is green in the plaid too, so I matched it with the green ribbon on the hem and cuff.  I didn't put piping on the waist though and I wished I had.
Next dress will definitely piping at the waist. And as I look at the photo again, I can see I need to touch it up with the iron.

Overall, the photo hasn't turned out well at all.  It's overcast here today, -2 oC and wind gusts of 40 km/h so getting this shot was difficult.

I found a Christmas bell that I thought Caitlin would like to wear with the dress.

One dress down and several more to go!

Dottie's Day Dress

Another project finished!

I bought the fabric for this dress back in '01 after I saw this dress in Creative Needle Magazine.

The wind is blowing so the collar looks askew as does the skirt, but it is straight. A good photographer I am not!

The issue was July/August of 2000. The issue included the pattern which was designed by Trudy Horne. I just loved it when I saw it in the magazine and knew I just had to make it one day.

The back has a belt as opposed to a sash. I followed the design plate 'Carlisle" which was also in the issue.

Then in the Jan/Feb 2003 issue the dress appeared again only minus a collar and in white dimity. I just had to get some dimity, which I did and used it last month on the pink baby carriages dress.



In Jan/Feb 2004 the dress appeared again in white Swiss pique and the design plate was by Karen Platner called 'Double Delight" which was featured in that issue.


In the Sept/Oct issue of 2004, the same dress appeared in windowpane dimity and instead of smocking the front it was shirred. At the bottom of the shirring is hand stitched daisies, french knots on a bed of wheat stitches. This article was written by Trudy Horne and included shirring instructions.

The pattern was easy to follow and worked up quickly. Goodness only knows why I took so long to get to this project!
It's size 12 months.