Stitch 2 Stitch

There is a story behind this dress. I wanted to sew a dress for Arianna since I personally noticed that I hardly ever sew her any dresses. And the closes I ever got to anything girly was a couple of girly tops and even that, it was always paired with pants. What can I say? I have always preferred pants and perhaps I am making it the same for her. So before she outgrows the age where she will wear what I want her to wear, I decided to start on more dresses and this is one of my efforts.

When I saw this design, I knew I wanted to sew it but somehow, kept putting it off and when I finally got the pattern all traced out, it took forever to find some matching fabrics that was already in my stash. I didn’t want to buy something new just for this dress plus I wasn’t too confident I could pull it off. And when I FINALLY got the fabrics all matched up and cut out, it took more effort to actually sew them up. The pattern is simple to put together but it took more than a week to finish!!

A couple of mistakes I made and changes that I will have to take note if I want to sew this again, and I think I will with a little modifications are :
#1. To not have the upper front bodice as a contrast, I think it looks better as plain.
#2. Definitely think through what sort of fabric I’m using before cutting up. See, this pattern calls for batiste which is really thin/light cotton which I didn’t have and also wants the bodice to fused with interfacing AND lining so it’s quite thick. Since I used cotton for the mid bodice and top skirt panel, and poplin for the borders, you can imagine how stiff it is but I’m hoping that after the wash, it will be a little bit more accomodating. But on the flip side, it does look good as is. lol So if I ever use cotton, I’ll definitely skip the interfacing all together.

Also, I really need to brush up on my zipper sewing. I truly suck at it! Anyhoo…on with the outcome.

See what I mean about the contrast of the top bodice piece? I think it would look better plain. What do you think? This also happens to be my backup Chrissy dress. lol I have 2 fabrics that compliment each other, kind of for both the girls so we’ll see how it goes.

The hat is not my choice to compliment the outfit but the little miss insisted. So who am I to argue with the model?

PS. That’s HER spot when we take shots if you happen to wonder why it’s always that brown door at the back. LOL

As I was packing away the girls warm clothes, I realised that some of them were only worn perhaps once or twice. Then I sit down and realised that I must have been sewing a lot and not really letting them wear what I’ve sewn often enough, which is a sad thing since kids just shoot up like weeds and before I can blink, I have to start sewing one size up! Talk about the luxury of having handmade clothes eh?

Thankfully, I have 2 girls so most of what Arianna has worn KR can wear in the near future but being born in different seasons does make a slight difference though. Arianna is an early Autumn baby while KR is an early winter baby so their clothes are off by 1 season, give or take. But that isn’t really a big deal since weather wise, the temperature is abt the same. Also, it is a blessing when you are able to just whip something up if you don’t enough of something. Pretty much what I’ve been doing really. I am proud to say that Arianna’s clothes from her undies to her outer wear are mostly handmade. I’ve only recently started sewing her panties and singlets but not that many since I still have a few bought ones which fits quite nicely. Also, I don’t really have the right fabric for singlets so when the time does come, I will have to go and get some.

Most of the time, I sew their going out clothes since at home, they just wear simple shorts and Tshirt but it is also through other observation that what I’ve sewn to wear out and normally nicer, tends to not get enough wear so these days, I try to dress them up in nice clothes even though they are at home. Might as well make the most of the clothes since I’ve gone through the trouble of sewing them right?

WOOOHOOO!!! I was totally over the moon when Picanini told me I won her giveaway!! I never win anything so winning this was like awesome. I’m very happy and feel so good about it. Thank you, Picanini for the wonderful PUL as well as Bamboo Velour that you threw in. Although I have not made any cloth nappies myself, I will do so now that I have something to work with.

See how gorgeous it is?? Love this Ooga Booga pattern.

On another note, she’s doing another giveaway – really cute Sesame Street PUL. If you want it, you gotta to be in it to win it!

Thanks again dear…hope I win again.

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I was being far too ambitious thinking that I could pull off 2 Christmas dresses for the girls. In my continuous effort on getting the right pattern, I keep failing and it is getting on my nerves that I can’t get the pattern that I’m after. I think most of you will think that it’s just silly of me coz really, the pattern I want is a simple sundress really. But not like the O+S one that I did. I think it’s more of a vintage sort of feel to it like the ones Enid Gilchrist does. And speaking of which, I’ve had my Enid books out time and time again but I always end up putting it back. I find that it’s terribly daunting for me to actually draw up a pattern from scratch even though the instructions are there. I’m such a chicken, aren’t I? :/

Anyway, this is what my second attempt turned out to be. First being that top that looked like a pajama top. *sigh*

This is something I came up with with Mum’s pattern which she drew up herself. It’s just the bodice and then I added the gathered skirt panel. I meant for it to be a short dress but didnt think that it would be this long which is why I teamed it up with Ruffles pants #3, 3-08. Used cotton voile [i think], The fabric is thin and lightweight and great for Aussie hot summers.

The ruffle pants is slightly modified around the legs. Instead of gatherings, I did some shirring on instead. Trth be known, I simply wanted to try my hand at shirring and this is only one row though. I bet I’m suppose to do more! *lol* But it works for now…

Not one of my best shots but these are the times when I need to make the most of! lol As you can see, once modeled you can’t really see the ruffle pants anymore but as a dress it’s a nice length.

I definitely can see me sewing more of this pattern. I think next time, I’ll shorten the dress so it’s more like a tunic/long blouse and team it with 3/4 leggings or beach shorts. What do you think?

TFL!

I actually made this O+S Pop Over Sundress some time ago but never got to taking some shots of Arianna in it. To recap, I made this reversible so it has red flowered fabric on the reverse which I haven’t had Arianna try out yet.

I think overall it was a really simple dress to make and I may well be doing another one soon. Extremely suitable for these hot Aussie summers.

TFL!

Omg…this giveaway is absolutely fabbo!!!! Why? Because I so badly need it for one of our carseats. The first one we bought and the second one was given to us, pre-loved so it is a little faded and needs a new facelift and this would be PERFECT. I hope I win it!

I think I may have been a little too ambitious. :/ I recently purchased some poly-cotton fabric to sew the girls their Christmas outfit. When I decided on the Otto pattern that I wanted, I forgot that it is now summer and that dress pattern would not be suitable. *rolls eyes*

So now I’m at the drawing board tryin to ‘design’ my own pattern. And Lord knows how many million more brain cells have since passed on. I did a so-called protype and instead of looking like a dress, my first attempt ended up looking like a pajama top but this is in my opinion. The ladies in the CM forum think otherwise.

This is something that I came up with by taking pieces from 2 Otto patterns n matching them up. This is meant for knit fabric but I think the rule of thumb is that is u use woven [this is cotton], just go a size up which I have done. It actually matches the the ruffle pants I recently did.

Pls ignore those fugly shorts!

Then I tried again, but this time with a pattern that my mum made up herself and since I’m absolutely useless when it comes to sleeves, I’ve turned my 2nd attempt into a sleevesless ‘dress’ which, again…ended up looking more like a tunic instead of a dress!!! *slaps forehead* No pix just yet. So although she can wear it, I’m going to do up another ruffle pants to match this green tunic.

I don’t know…at the rate of things going. I think I might end up buying for them this year. :/

This is one really awesome giveaway I hope to win!! I may not be a fan of such things but my sis is! And what a lovely Chrissy present this would be. Pls pick me!!

What an awesome giveaway! Such a simple n cute frock. I definitely hope I win but if I don’t, it’s ok. It’s got a bonus pattern AND tute!!

This such a CUTE giveaway and I know the exact person who would absolutely love that lovely green one. I’m so all for neutral colors.