Posts from — July 2008

My sister came over one day about six weeks ago with her daughter dressed in a gorgeous little pinafore. I had a good look at it and said “Wow, that’s so simple…I could make one of those this afternoon!”. Hmmm…ominous words! I did in fact get the dress cut out that afternoon, but spent at least an hour sewing in my first ever lining and then stayed up past midnight appliquéing cats along the bottom of the dress. So it didn’t take an afternoon, never mind, I was really pleased with the result. Until Miss Zoe got up to put it on the next morning…

It doesn’t look too bad in that photo, but the dress was ridiculously short and could really only be worn over jeans (which of course meant it was never worn). I ummmed and ahhhed for several weeks trying to decide how to lengthen it, before settling on a pleated frill. Here’s the result:

I am so pleased that this dress could be saved, and Zoe loves wearing it (unlike the last couple of things I’ve made her which she refuses to even try on). Now just one dress left to fix….

This is another top I picked up for $5 after Mother’s Day. It has been sitting on my sewing table (or rather my dining table) for a few weeks and I figure it was time to move it to the ‘finished’ pile. Here is what I did with it:

It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot prettier than it was, and for $5 plus fabric scraps I think it’s turned out quite well. I will definitely try it again when I’ve got another top and some different scraps around.

I have been promising to make Zoe a magic wand for some time, and when I found out a friend had a new baby girl I thought it was a perfect opportunity to give the wand idea a go, albeit in miniature. Here’s the result:

I put a little bell inside, so that it can be used as a little rattle. Miss Zoe could cope with me making someone else a wand, but for some reason she took great offense at the bell inside. Whilst I was sewing the ribbon on my second attempt she appeared with a little bell in her hand. I asked her “where did you get that bell?” to which she replied “I can’t tell you because you’ll be angry”! She was on the mark there…have a look at what she did to my first version get the bell out!

I was quite shocked at the time as she’s not usually a destructive child, but I can’t help but smile every time I see that little wand with its points cut off. That girl certainly knows how to get what she wants! Now to channel that determination a little

I made this dress over a month ago from a Japanese pattern book.

I wrestled with the crazy pattern sheet and and inserted my very first zip, only to find that the pattern is much too wide for my Zoe. See how it drops off her shoulder as she puts Vegemite on her biscuit?

It was only supposed to be a trial run but I loved the dress so much I unpicked practically the whole dress to try to fix the problem. I took the zip out and cut an inch out of the back, and took the side seems in as well. As you can see it’s made all the difference, and this has become a really practical dress for Zoe to play in (I know – pants would be even more practical, but as I’ve mentioned, Zoe doesn’t do pants!).

I would love to make another version of this dress in some fancy fabric, but I still have two other dresses that need my attention before I can start anything new…