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. . .

Cross-stitched blanket

I love the (expensive) blankets from Swans Island. The blankets are wool but are designed for summer. They're light, thin and much cooler in our (un-air conditioned) bedrooms than the thin quilts or flannel sheets we used to use as bed coverings in the summer. Both kids have one; I just wish we adults did!

I love the simplicity of the blankets but I esp. like that plainness when contrasted with something fancy. So I cross-stitched a monogram on my daughter's blanket:


The design is from one of the Rouge du Rhin books I got from The French Needle. I did the cross stitching with a couple strands of DMC floss over two threads. It was easier in some ways than stitching on linen because the space between the threads is bigger but more difficult in that the wool sticks together. But it turned out fine.

I did this one in 2010 but *still* haven't done one for my son. . . .

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.