Our Wedding Dresses

So my sister-in-law was wed yesterday. It was a beautiful ceremony. Almost everything went without a hitch, the only hiccup that the announcements were made before the groomsmen could get back out to escort the special guests out.  No one would ever know just how close it was to get a certain bridesmaid's dress finished.

However, before we get to that, let me talk about the girls' dresses.  If you will recall from this post, I had been planning for some time to make the Regency dresses from the Sense & Sensibility pattern.  Since I knew I wouldn't be getting the fabric for the dress for a while I decided to make the girls' dresses first.  I started them back in February, I think.  I was able to find a really nice 100% cotton at Wal-Mart of all places.  My mother-in-law was kind enough to let me borrow her serger so I could even finish the seams!  I wasn't able to get them finished until the beginning of last week however, because we just moved on the first and it took a while to get my sewing stuff back out again.  I'm so glad I made the elastic version of the dress.  It is so much easier to fit a growing girl, especially when starting it several months in advance.

For my 2 year old daughter I added a grosgrain ribbon tie belt.  I really like how it dressed up the dress.  You would never guess how hard it is to get a full body picture of a toddler during the busy-ness of a wedding!

I have a spool of the purple grosgrain ribbon somewhere, but neither my husband, mother, or I could find it in the few days before the wedding.  The ribbon I used for the belt had been sitting out along with a shorter piece.  The second piece was too short to make a matching belt for the baby, so I used it to make her a headband.  My mom made the flower while we were at the rehearsal.

I love how the difference makes their dresses different, yet still the same.

And now for the story of my dress.  Originally I had planned on making myself a Regency dress as well.  I wanted to alter the front to make a nursing opening.  However, after several changes with the other bridesmaids I realized that if I made a Regency dress, then I'd be the odd girl out in the line up.  The other 3 dresses were all modern styles and lines.  So about 2 weeks ago, (yes, you read that right) I opened the box that has my patterns in it and found Simplicity 2926.  I bought it about 4 years ago, always wanting to make it, but didn't have a reason to until now.  Only problem is that it is not nurse-able.

However, since Miss Bubbles is almost 11 months old, my mom suggested that if I nursed her right before the ceremony I'd have a really good chance of not needing to nurse her again for several hours. 

I made view C with view A's sleeves.  There were 2 reasons I did this.  One, I didn't think the sleeves for C would quite work for a bridesmaid dress; I really didn't want a seam down the center of my sleeves.  And I figured with my time constraints that simpler was better!  I did lengthen them about an inch and a half though.  My mom also showed me how to make my own piping when she got here on Tuesday.  I can't believe how easy it is!

I can't say that I constructed it all by myself though.  Alas for two littles who are constantly needing mommy for something!  While I nursed the baby, my mom worked on the dress.  It was finished Friday afternoon.  My mom was ironing it when the girls and I left for the rehearsal!

My husband and I.

And now I'm sure you'd all like to see the lovely bride.  She is wearing a dress that was first worn by the groom's great-great grandmother in 1908.  It was the dress of her dreams and only needed the tiniest bit of altering to fit her!

The bride and her mother.

The happy couple!  Don't they just look so sweet together?

The bride and groom.

Girls Regency Dress for Winter

So, I've been wanting to get the Girls Regency Dress Pattern from Sense & Sensibility Patterns ever since my first daughter was born. With my sister-in-law getting married this Spring I finally had the perfect excuse to buy it!

As I had been told that the dress runs big I decided to make a mock-up first.  But I didn't want to go through all the trouble of making a dress that wasn't going to be used, especially since my daughter really needed more winter dresses.  So I figured I could do both at once!

Based on my daughter's measurements she was still a size 1, but she's 21 months old, so I wanted to try making the size 2 first.  As the purpose of this dress was to check the fit, I thought I'd go ahead and make the slip-on version, with elastic in the neck and waist.  So easy!  This pattern went together like a dream.

The fabric I choose was from a flannel bed sheet.  The print is bigger than I would like, but my pink flannel is buried in a tub under lot's of boxes, and very inaccessible.  However, the large print of the flannel actually made it extremely easy to match the plaids!  I was also able to cut the skirt out in one piece because of the width of the sheet.

The sleeve pattern is extremely long for such little girls so I had to shorten it for my little Missy.  Unfortunately, I shortened it a little too much.  I'll be making the short sleeve versions for the wedding, so I won't have to make that mistake again!

I really like the slip-on version, and think I'm going to use that again for the dress for the wedding.  I think it will actually work better that way since I'm making several months in advance, and don't know exactly how big my girls will be by the wedding.

She had so much fun with her photo shoot!

Inconsistanies with the clothing industry

Excuse me if I have to have a little rant here. This week I was able to go shopping at Target and get some much needed winter clothes for my girls. Most everything I bought for my 17 month old were 18 month sized, but I did have to get a pair of corduroy pants in 24 months as that was the smallest they came in.  These pants have decorative tabs with a button on the waistline.  You usually see these things used for obtaining a better fit for children's clothes.  However, these one were purely decorative.  When I put the pants on Angel Cakes they were constantly falling down and tripping her.

So I took them off and moved the buttons over and inch or so.  Such an easy fix!  But my biggest question is, why didn't they just put extra buttons on the pants in the first place?!  These pants are meant for fast growing toddlers, it would only make sense.

Especially since they have snaps in the hem to cuff the legs up two more inches.  And that is a great idea!  (Sorry I didn't take a picture of that.)

Here's the happy toddler with pants that actually stay up now!

So there you go.  That's my rant.  I might have to start a series on this if it happens again. :-P

Baby shoes for a Boy

 A friend of mine just delivered her first baby not to long ago and I really wanted to make her something for him.  I got Simplicity 2491 recently, and decided that would be the perfect choice.

I'm very happy with these "very boy" shoes!  To make them I used a left over scrap from the Ball Bag project, and the same fleece that I used to make the Lambkin.  I also happened to have a short piece of ribbon that matched the fleece perfectly.  Not only that, but it was the exact length I needed too!  After I cut my two pieces there was only an inch left.  How's that for perfect?

This is the first time I've make something for a little boy, and I'm very happy with them!  I can't wait to make shoes from this pattern again soon for my own little baby girl.

Terry Cloth Kitty

A few years ago I found an adorable free pattern to make a plush kitty out of a towel.  Ever since then I'd been wanting to make it, but either couldn't find a towel I liked, or didn't have time once I realized that it'd make the perfect gift for a little someone.  Since I couldn't get one made for Angel Cakes for Christmas, I decided that her first birthday would not pass by!  And here it is.

She loves it!!

We didn't have her party until the day after her actual birthday, so hubby and I wanted to give it to her early.

Simplicity 1921 for Easter

I had been planning for several months to make my little one a new dress for Easter. A few months ago I got the pattern I had in mind out to get ideas. Then about a month later I was finally able to dig out my fabric box and see if I had enough of the fabric I had in mind. It was at that time that I discovered that the pattern had gone missing! Hubby and I searched everywhere for it, and were unable to locate it. So I finally resigned myself to the fact that I would not be able to make an Easter dress for my baby this year.

But then in a conversation with my mom I happened to mention that I had seem a new pattern online that was exactly what I had in mind for a summer sundress. Well, my mom decided to go out and buy that pattern, then send it to me in time to make a dress after all!

The pattern she sent me was Simplicity 1921.  One thing about the pattern, is that it calls for 2 packages of medium rick rack, but unfortunately, I have rather limited resources right now.  I did find an old package from the box that someone had given me last year.

The pink piece ended up just barely long for the collar.

However, I did not have enough blue rick rack to put on the double hem line.  In fact, I didn't even have enough to go around once!  But since the dress turned out way too long, I had to add an extra tuck to the skirt.  I really like how that two tucks together look, and don't think it looks like it's missing anything without the rick rack.

And now for my scathing review on the construction of the collar.  If you hadn't guessed, I really hate how the pattern tells you to put it together, and here's why.  Constructing the collar band was the easy part, it went together exactly like it was supposed too.  However, when the directions tell you to pin the band to the collar, there is absolutely no mention that you need to scrunch the rick rack way in to get it to fit.  The first time I pinned it on nice and smooth, the band came out 3 inches too long for the band!  It took me taking it off and completely repinning it 6 times before I was able to get it to fit.  Because of all that it was really hard to keep it on the 1/4 inch seam line.  I was able to get it to look decent, but not great.  But get this next part, you are supposed to stitch the rick rack to the band at a 1/4 inch, just catching the tips, then you are to also stitch it to the collar at 1/4 seamline, again, just catching the tips, but when you sew the collar facing to the collar, you're supposed to stitch it at a 3/8 inch seam!!  If I had done that, I would have lost half the rick rack!  Beginning to see why I hate this pattern?  And if that wasn't enough, the directions make to mention of making sure the collar band is out of the way when you sew the collar to the facing.  As soon as I started to pin it on, I could see that the band needed to be folded under to keep it out of the way.  But how many beginners wouldn't think of doing that, and find their band sewn into the collar facing when they went to turn it?

There, all done with that soap box. :-P

Already wanting to be helpful, my little Angel Cakes opened the zipper package and even tried to pull the zipper out for me!

So there you have it, I cut the dress out on Wednesday, started sewing on Tuesday, and got it finished Friday night!  Then made the matching bloomers on Saturday.  Not bad for a mama with a very attentive 1 year old!

And here she is on Easter Sunday. ^_^

If you'd like to read my review on Sewing Pattern Review, you can click HERE.  (I wasn't nearly as scathing in that one though) ;-)

Khaki Maternity Skirt

I was finally able to make something for myself again last week. A new maternity skirt! This time I used Simplicity 2366, view C, with only one major change.
The skirt went together very easily, (for the most part) and very quickly. The only problem I had with it was my fault really. I used a khaki twill fabric for it, not one of the recommended types, and it was too thick. Not too thick that I wasn't able to make it work, just too thick to allow the flounce points to lay smoothly. I actually resewed each point and was able to get them to lay better, but not still not ideal.
The major change I made to the skirt was to substitute the yoke and drawstring for a knit maternity band. The knit was a little thinner than I would have liked, so I doubled it to make sure that it would be strong enough to hold up the skirt.
This skirt is very comfortable, and I really like that it's nice enough to wear for church, but also causal enough for everyday use. And I do believe it's going to be getting a lot of use in the next 3 months. :-)

Here's one last picture of me with both my babies. ^_^