A Pillowcase Dress

A month or so ago Jess and I decided to make some dresses for Bella Boo. We started with a dress that had been gifted to Jess. It was super long. probably a christening type gown. I convinced Jess that we could make it into something Bella could wear. Copying a dress from Baby Gap, in about a hour, we had a dress. It took that long because sometimes I can not get around doing things the hard way....

The hem of the old dress was a very pretty border of embroidered flowers. It was so easy to make, we ended up making two more. Getting pictures is the hard part. I used a soft cotton twill tape for the shoulder straps. the front and back panels have a casing at the neck with elastic through it. I like that you don't have to have actual ties to hold the dress on.

She has already grown so much, that it is more of a top than a dress! That's the nice things about clothing like this, it can go through several growth spurts before being too small. We'll try to show the other versions soon!

The Greenpoint Cardigan

The Greenpoint Cardigan - Do you ever have one of those moments when you are looking for a particular something, and then that exact thing practically falls in your lap? This happened to me three weeks ago when Adrianna, one half of the Crafterhours dynamic duo, released her first pattern. Oh. My. Goodness. It is cute. It is adaptable. It is unisex. It is downloadable. You can find it on her new shop website, "Hey June Handmade". I knew exactly what fabric I wanted to use for my first attempt. I've had a Michael Miller clown stripe in brown sitting around for a couple of years. Not a single time did it speak up and say, "make me into this!", til now..... Within two days of downloading the pattern, I had the Greenpoint Cardigan made up, it is that straightforward. Three weeks later, I did the buttonholes and sewed the buttons on.... go me..... Those buttonholes almost didn't happen, my machine and I had a mild disagreement over whether it would make them for me. It actually won, but I'm not going to talk about it. 

I could go on and on about the pattern but I'll post a bunch of photos instead. 

My grandson was my inspiration and model. He was a very good sport, even if he was bribed. 

The boy kills me and I love him so.

 

Buttoned up, it has a nice slim but not tight fit. The raglan sleeve makes for easy movement and this boy moves.

 Micah really got into modeling. He even turned back and forth so we could different views.

 Ahhhh blowing kisses?!

 NOPE! Eating brownies. You can see a bit in his right hand in the photo below.

Unbuttoned the look becomes cool and casual.

And then he was done!

Disclosure: Though this pattern was given to me by the designer the decision to make it, love it, write about it and make it again are entirely my own.

I'm, Like, All Grown Up Now

Next in the line of never ending (I'm serious, I hope) things for Isabella.... McCall's 5835. This is a size 1 and will be more of a top than dress. I think. 

Jess choose this polka dot design by Riley Blake. I decided on the dark green to coordinate with it. 

It's a sweet, fairly easy pattern. Fairly easy because I changed the way they told you to put the bodice together. The instructions call for too much hand sewing  for my liking right now. Having just sewn the Ice Cream dress by Oliver + S, I finished the bodice with the method shown there. 

I picture it with a little pair of jeans. Jess may have other ideas.... 

I also had some help from my new toy. See that underarm seam up there?? 

Yes, I am all grown up, I finally got a serger. 

I have resisted for so very long because the silly things intimidated me. The price and the threading and such. 

Then I saw a post over on Crafterhours. Adrianna informed me that this model was on sale for a attainably low price. I caved and I'm so glad I did. It can cut down to one step what I used to take three steps to do. Time is something that I don't have an excess of lately. 

It was a bit busy when it came so my attention was not all together when I started trying the machine out. After realizing where I threaded it wrong, I was good to go. So far, it's amazing. 

Dear Serger, 

I 

heart

 you.

Oh!

Dear You Know Who,

I 

heart

you too!