New dress WIP

This is a new pattern --Jane's First Day Dress, by Sew Beautiful. I'm not sure if it's still in print; I got it off eBay. The fabric is a teeny blue tattersall I got from Farmhouse Fabrics with the embroidery done in dark blue Floche. It's not done -- no sleeves, the collar is pinned in place and the chain stitch edging around the white is only half complete.

I don't like the collar -- the whip stitch edging is too dark. Thinking of doing either a white collar with a little bit of white lace trim or else a white collar with a blanket-stitch edging in the Floche.

The sleeves will just be short-sleeve caps, probably with some little white edging.

My girl isn't so sure about this dress -- she thinks it doesn't have enough pink or flowers. I keep reminding her that I'll add some sort of lace trims and that it will have a bow on the back. She's unconvinced. . .

5/6/11 update

Here's the finished dress, complete with blue Floche embroidery, chainstitching (in lieu of piping) and double blanket-edging around the collar:
And my girl *does* like this dress, in part, I think, because she likes the bow on the back. My favorite thing is the teeny Swiss embroidered edging at the bottom of the sleeves.

Embroidered winter dress

When cold weather arrived I realized my daughter had no long-sleeve dresses in her closet. Last year I think she was wearing jumpers over t-shirts but she's decided she doesn't like jumpers (too bad because I think they're cute). And I don't think she's worn pants except during cold soccer matches in at least six months. So I ordered some feather-wale cordury and started sewing.

This was the first dress I made for her. The sewing itself was quick; I used the Daisy May pattern from Petite Poche and modified for long sleeves. The embroidery was time-consuming but not difficult -- just satin stitch, French knots and backstitch. It's based on a design in Alicia Paulson's Embroidery Companion -- one of several things I'd like to stitch from that lovely book.

Two Frannie dresses

I made both these dresses (from a Lyn Weeks/Especially for You pattern called Frannie) last summer. I like this pattern because it protects my kid's shoulders from the sun but seems really cool. And it's got such a cute, vintage-y feel. It's fun to make because there aren't many pattern pieces and the sleeve construction is unusual. It goes together pretty quickly -- very few pattern pieces and only two buttons on the back -- but the piping (which I love) does add to the time and complexity of the pattern.

The pink & blue fabric is from a line called Hello Betty.

The red gingham dress was more work because of the embroidery. I used Floche for the padded satin stitch and got the P pattern from a French embroidery book called Alphabets. It has red & white picot trim on the sleeves & collar and the piping fabric on the yoke seam is white with tiny cherries.

Liberty shirt

Last summer was hot and I was enjoying the blessed coolness of my own Liberty of London shirts so much that I decided to make a couple for my daughter. I love this one, both because the fabric is so beautiful and because it was a new shape.

I made the shirt by modifying the Frannie dress pattern by Lyn Weeks (Especially for You). I've made this as a dress multiple times; for the shirt I narrowed the skirt and changed the neckline to be a v-notch (inspired by an Oliver and S pattern). I lined the yoke only with white batiste.

I dithered about whether to add some trim to the edges or the curved yoke seam; in the end I just chain-stitched along the yoke seam. I think it would have been cute to add something to the sleeve edge -- a tiny trim or piping or something.

Ruffle collars

This summer I made a new variation of the basic shirt I've made multiple times for my daughter. I use the shirt pattern from the Kitty pattern by Children's Corner -- it's a Peter Pan collar shirt without puffed sleeves. This time I decided to add a ruffle to the collar. I made a bias strip about 36" long, hand hemmed it and then sewed it into the collar seam (I made the collar a little shorter to adjust for the width of the ruffle). I narrowed the ruffle as it neared the edge.

I made the short-sleeve purple gingham one first and liked it but thought the ruffle was a little too deep and the collar itself a little too wide (the ruffles overlap a little where they meet). I like the proportions on the long-sleeve pink one better.

My daughter loves these ruffles, and I like them too. It did take forever, though, what with hand-hemming the ruffle and then fiddling with the gathers to make them even. . .