Friday, August 31, 2012

Ladybugs Everywhere


 
The ladybug dress is finished and the pictures are adorable - all thanks to a great new camera and Mr. Iron Press's camera skills :)  Little Z has spent a lot of time in this new outfit.  I made some changes from the first dress - namely, the sash (from a contrasting but coordinating ladybug fabric) is attached just at the centre back so that it ties at the front.  This creates a few tucks and pleats when you tie it, but everything just seems to lie a bit better than having the ribbon sewed down across the entire bodice. I also made the neckline a bit wider and inserted the elastic using a serger and then folding it over - more on this technique when I post the pattern.

Gazing longingly into the distance


Back w/ sash detail
Back sash attachment



Front - full length (pardon my scraggly hair :) I didn't intend to be in the pics!
 The pattern is on its way - I just have to figure out how to take my hand-drawn pattern and make it a nice digital PDF without my scrawly handwriting all over it.  Photoshop? Open-source program? Any ideas?

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Little Baby Things!


So, now that I'm back in the sewing saddle after having my precious little girl, all I can think about are baby clothes and baby things.  Selfish sewing still happens :) but for the most part, I am planning all the adorable and fashionable things I can make for Little Z.  The best thing is, it takes so little fabric to make anything! I can actually use some of my remnants to make great outfits for her - I just have to make sure not to wear the matching fabric outfit on the same day.  That's worse than twins that dress alike. We don't want that.

The latest is a little dress with an elastic neckline and a bit of length so that she can wear it for a while to come.  It can always be used as a tunic later on as long as the neck fits over her head.  And since it fits over mine, I can only assume it will last for a while.

Front of dress

Back of Dress

 Back of Dress w/ Bow Tied

The trick was to get the cap sleeve and the underarm finish to look good.  I took a cue from a ready made dress and serged the sleeve to shoulder attachment and the underarm part in one fell swoop and then folded in the underarm hem.  This pushed the entire serged seam to roll to the inside.  The finish is tidy and looks good from the right and wrong sides.


 Underarm hem folded in and stitched
 Underarm hem from the inside with lining showing

Next up: little ladybug dress and a pattern for those of you who are interested.