Snowman Jumper

Okay, so I'm majorly overdue for a new post!  Let's just say things have been more than crazy in my life for a long time.  And because of this, I really haven't done very much sewing.  I really miss it too, as it is a big stress reliever for me.

Anyway, I had wanted this to be done in January, and to be able to make a second one for my older daughter.  But, that's not going to happen because while the rest of the country still seems to be stuck in winter, Colorado is gearing up for Spring, and all our snow has been gone for almost a month!  Little one's are in need of springtime clothes now, not winter ones.

 I used an out of print McCalls pattern this time.  Knowing how huge Big Three patterns tend to come out, I made size 1 for my 21 month old.  The length is perfect, but the shoulders are still huge to the point that one side is always trying to fall off.

 I didn't have matching buttons, so I found some coordinating ones in my stash, and am very happy with how they look.

 The pattern was very easy to put together, and once I started working on it, I was able to get it finished very quickly.

 This little one absolutely loves snowmen, so I knew she'd love this dress.  She asked to wear it two days in a row, and would have worn it again if it hadn't been dirty!

The flannel was given to me, and I'm still in awe of just how perfectly the pieces fit on it.  I couldn't have made a bigger size if I had wanted too!

Hopefully, you'll be seeing more posts coming up soon as I have a lot of sewing I need to get done this spring before #3 arrives in June. :)

Simplicity 9784 Baby Dress & Pinafore

 Our little Bubbles turned 1 year old last month!  I knew my mom didn't have time to make her a smocked birthday dress, plus I really wanted to make her birthday dress this year.  Last year just after Bubbles was born I really wanted to make big sister Ace, and her matching dresses out of Simplicity 9784.  I've had these 2 pieces of cotton fabric for about 7 or 8 years, meaning to make myself a dress with them.  But after Ace was born I felt that the print would be better suited for a baby outfit.

 Since there was so much of the fabric, I decided that it would be just as easy to make 2 matching outfits for both of my girls.  So last year while my mom was visiting while I recovered from giving birth, I asked her to cut out the dresses for me.  My thought was that if they were cut, an ready to go, it would be super easy to just pop in the sewing room when I had a little extra time and put the dresses together.

 But alas, I have since learned that after I have a baby, I can't do any significant sewing jobs for the first 6 months.  I put countless diaper covers together in that time, but they were a huge necessity, plus they only took a half an hour each to make.  I did get the bodice and front facing of the bigger dress put together, but then I realized that Ace had already outgrown it.  And Bubbles had outgrown the smaller one by that time as well.

 So I put the pattern and pieces away not knowing when I'd have the chance to get them out again.  As Bubbles' birthday started approaching I started looking to see if I had anything that would work for a birthday dress.  And I remembered that the larger dress had been cut out in a 12 month size.  Bingo!

 I got it out and sewed it up in no time.  The only thing that took extra time were the buttonholes.  You see, sometime last year my sewing machine decided it didn't want to make buttonholes anymore, and I haven't had the chance to take in it for a long overdue cleaning and check-up.  So I had to make them by hand.  It really wasn't hard at all.  I used a blanket stitch because I thought that was how you are supposed to work hand sewn buttonholes.  It wasn't until later that I was reading my copy of the Singer Sewing Book published back sometime in the 50's that I discovered that there is an actual buttonhole stitch, and it looks much sturdier than the blanket stitch.

Overall I'm very happy with the pattern, and love how the dress and pinafore turned out.  Miss Bubbles has worn it several times since her birthday, and I know she'll get much more use out of it over the rest of the summer.  I don't know when I'll ever get around to making the smaller dress, it's a size 0-3 months.  I do know now though that if I want to make something for one of my babies to wear in the first 6 months of their life, I'll have to make it before he or she is born!

I wrote this post in a different style than I normally do.  Please let me know if you like it.

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.