Everyday Pascale dress

The girl needed one more everyday dress for school. I had made her a couple out of featherwale corduroy but since winter is proceeding apace, I wanted to make one in a little lighter weight. So I made this dress in pique with 3/4 length sleeves. With a sweater she's warm enough even for January.

The inspiration for this dress came from Townmouse. The Townmouse dress is a little different, with a looser shape, a full-button front and shorter sleeves, but it's what got me thinking about ruffles. The girl loves bright colors and patterns, but I was in the mood to sew a more somber, almost French uniform kind of dress. The dress looks a little dull on the hanger but when worn the skirts swings, the ruffles fan out -- and I think it's lovely.

I used the Pascale pattern from Sew Beautiful #114 as the base and just lengthened the sleeves to 3/4 length and added the ruffles (in blue and white tattersall leftover from this dress). This whole project went together lickety split.


But the dress would never have gotten done without the kind help of the ladies at the Children's Corner. I got the gorgeous pique from them and when there was an accidental error with my order they went to all ends to make it better for me. They actually found what I needed at another store and shipped it to me with no hassle or cost for me. They were so sweet and helpful that they endeared themselves to me forever.

Purple batiste dress

This dress is really just so . . . sweet. The fabric is a thin, light purple batiste that looks almost white until you look at the collar (which is white). It's so sheer that I'll have to make a slip for the girl to wear under it.

I've made this pattern (Tuck Dress from Collars Etc) three times now -- once in a red twill with a white collar with tiny printed cherries and once earlier this summer in a red and white dimity check. The two red versions have a cheerful, everyday kind of vibe but this one is totally different -- much more dainty.

I have to admit I didn't so much have an inspiration for this dress as a model -- the pattern company itself made a version in light pink with the little embroidery on the tucks. I totally used their idea and just changed the colors and added embroidery on the front pleat. (I used Floche colors 819, 3348 and 210 for the little pinwheel flowers.)

I did change the back this time. The pattern calls for a full button back but I thought the buttonholes in this thin fabric might stretch out over time. So I put in an inverted pleat with three hidden snaps:


I read the instructions on the Bonnie Blue pattern for Emma Lee for general info although I ended up doing it a little differently. I also had to remove a couple of the side pleats since the center pleat uses so much width, but the collar covers the shoulder seam and thus the fact that there are more pleats on the front than in the back.

Simple dress

It was hot here in July. Way too hot. So I made a cool and simple dress for my daughter.


I loved the idea of simple crisp gingham with no waist seam; it seemed just the thing in the heat. But while I had an old pattern called Lauren's A-Line Dress from Bonnie Blue (no longer available -- Bailey seems to be the new name) it wasn't quite right (wrong size, gathered sleeves, full-button back, etc.). So I ended up drafting the pattern myself, using bits from here and there. It turned out cute, but took me forever with pieces of newspaper and scribbled measurements all over the living room.

I wanted embroidery that wouldn't take forever so I just drew a heart and then started embroidering from the middle with running stitch, lazy daisy stitches and French knots. Then I just mirrored it on the other side.


The sewing was the simplest part of this dress -- 3 tucks on each side of front and back, shoulder & side seams, set in sleeve with attached Swiss embroidery and a 2 button placket on the back. I did face the hem and hand hem it so that took a while but was entirely pleasant. . .

Shadow stitched butterfly dress

Ooh, I like how this dress turned out.


After the very traditional, little-girl white & blue smocked dress I made for my girl, I wanted to make something that seemed a little more grown up. I used the Jane's First Day Dress pattern again, used a bright orange & cream dot fabric and shadow stitched a butterfly on the front. This was only the second time I did shadow stitching; it was quick and easy.

The trimming is a small brown rickrack; I sewed it into the seam around the front panel and attached it by hand to the collar. You can't see it well here but there is small cream Swiss embroidered trim on the sleeves.

I altered the pattern slightly by raising the neck a little and doing a round rather than a pointed collar.

Smocking a blue-dotted dress

I started a new dress for my girl. She's getting older and it seems to me that the window for making really traditional, high-waisted, collared, smocked dresses is closing but I wanted to sneak a couple more through.

The fabric is tiny blue pindots on white. I don't have a pleater so I always hand pleat for smocking; this time I could use the dots for spacing so I didn't have to mark it out with a ruler or smocking dots. I didn't think it through but as I was pleating realized that this means the dots themselves line up in rows.

I'm using the Ginger's Basic Yoke Dress pattern. It's just a straightforward puff-sleeved, Peter Pan-collared dress but I chose this pattern years ago because of the wide size range (6 months - age 12). The smocking is with a single strand of Floche in colors 3325 & 775 and the smocking design is from 'Jennifer" in Australian Smocking & Embroidery #82.

8/17/11 update -- here's the completed dress (finished back in June)! I shadow-stitched the bow on the yoke. It was the first time I did this kind of embroidery and it was easy-peasy.

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.

Corduroy

Over the past 3 weeks I've discovered corduroy! OK, *I* didn't discover it, obviously, but for the first time in the ~30 years I've been sewing I made something out of it! Actually, three things:

1. Oliver + S sandbox pants for the boy. OK, these weren't the most fun sewing I ever did but the pattern was well-written and the pants turned out nicely.


Last year the boy wore Comfort Cords from Hanna Andersson. These are great but they're expensive ($34 plus shipping) and the corduroy just can't match the quality of the gorgeous Spechler-Vogel featherwale from Sweet Treasures (that might sound like a sex toy site but it's actually an heirloom sewing shop). It's so soft and smooth. . . .

But we'll see how it holds up. I'm not optimistic; corduroy shows wear terribly and I patched the knees in all the boy's corduroy pants last year at least twice. But this year at least the patches can be the same fabric as the rest of the pants.


2. Navy Mary Jane jumper from Collars Etc. This is a good, plain jumper for everyday. The pattern only has two pieces (one front, one back); you cut them in the outside fabric (here the same beautiful Spechler Vogel corduroy) and in a lining. Sewing was easy and would have been fast except for the rickrack trim around the neck, armholes and hem. I sewed the rickrack onto the corduroy super slowly and carefully and then sewed on the same lines again to attach the corduroy and lining to each other.

Instead of one large button on each shoulder I used two small ones that I pulled off of a 10-year old J Crew sweater that was in my donation pile.

3. Bright pink Kitty jumper from Children's Corner patterns.


When I pulled out the fabric from the Sweet Treasures envelope I thought, "Oops. Too bright. This is what I get for ordering off the internet." But, happily, once sewn up it looks great to me. The jumper is certainly bright but not overwhelming as it was when seen in one big piece.

I think this jumper is gorgeous. The girl wishes it had pockets.

Best blue dress

I've been doing a bit more sewing lately, especially now that my girl likes to wear dresses. This is her best summer dress, made from Vogue 7504. I got the plaid fabric from Elegant Stitches and it's beautiful -- clear, crisp, 100% cotton but not very wrinkly. The dark purple piping is actually the reverse side of the leftovers from a dress I made for myself more than 10 years ago.

This dress took forever to make because I was matching the plaid -- along the tuck lines, between the bodice pieces, etc. Other than that it was straightforward.

I love this dress because it's not pink and nothing about it says 2008 to me. The girl loves it because it's twirly.