Girls love glamor

My 4-year-old has been pestering me for her mermaid princess dress for the last week or so since I came home with the fabric. I had hemmed and hawed over what to make her, and she has finally agreed to wear this for both an upcoming mermaid party and Halloween (or so she says today). Possibly for the fairies and unicorns party as well. She told me, though, that she didn't want the mermaid tail skirt because she was a mermaid who could come out of the water and look like a regular princess. Hmm. Okay, so scrap the pattern for the tail ... need glamorous princess gown instead. She did NOT like the idea of a tutu-style skirt over the tail. She wanted floor-length, drapey, and full-on glamor. I showed her several patterns, and nothing was clicking for either of us, but when she got her hands on the fabric and held it up, we started formulating a plan.

I have to admit that I *love* working with her. She has amazing ideas every day and I let her act on them as much as possible, fostering every bit of her creativity. She got me thinking, and one night, trying to get little miss e to sleep, I realized that I could use the bubble dress pattern to make this dress.

The bubble dress ... my new favorite go-to pattern, from a tutorial by Lex on her blog. She does some absolutely amazing fashions, and I am so impressed with the simplicity of this dress. I made five in two days, which sounds crazy, but it's true.

So I took Lex's idea and just made it strapless, per Miss E's instructions, adding a casing in the chest band for elastic. I used the basic fabric headband idea, stitching one end of the elastic to each end of the chest band, and making sure it was exactly the right size to stay up. The dress is a bit heavy because of the crushed velvet panne (yes, the cheap polyester stuff; this is a costume!). That's the underlayer, which is necessary because she needed something soft against her body, and because I didn't want a see-through dress. The top layer is from the special occasions fabric collection at JoAnn. I had another fabric in hand, and this one was at the cutting counter screaming "MERMAID" at me. It didn't let me down. I think they work together perfectly, leaving her with a flowing, absolutely beautiful gown.

The top band is from Amy Butler's Love collection, the fabric that is the inner lining on the purse/tote I started mid-February. No, it isn't finished yet. I keep interrupting myself and leaving it sitting, 75 percent done, in the back of my closet. However, the fabric for the mermaid princess dress was on the floor right in front of the purse, and I realized that they were almost the exact same color. I figured it would be nice to have a cotton around her chest, and it would be easier to work with than the slippery panne and nylon.

I think it took about two hours to finish, and with the serger, all the crazy stray threads were removed and anything that wasn't was made all nice and pretty and orderly. If she does decide it feels like it needs a strap, I think I would cover a big button with the bluer part of the Love fabric and put that right in the middle of the top. Then I'd serge the sides of a long piece of the sparkle fabric, put an elastic loop in the center, and use that as an optional halter. However, she wore the dress for at least two hours tonight after it was made, and she never once had it slip. Sounds like I got the elastic right! If she doesn't need the halter, I may make a big gauzy flower for the front center. I haven't decided, but I guess that is yet to be determined. For now, it's really a very striking dress and I can't believe I made it myself!

I'll include a couple other bubble dress photos here. Just such a great way to make a quick dress, and both girls look so cute in theirs, as does our neighbor, who got a matching one for little miss e's first birthday party. Miss E's American Girl Doll Bitty Baby got one, too! They all looked like a royal court in purple and chocolate.

The first one I made ended up being too short, really, but when paired with little brown leggings, it is just adorable on little miss e as she toddles around.

Have fun, and try out Lex's awesome tutorial!

Organic sewing

No, not organic cotton ... just pure, organic, patternless and somewhat seat-of-the-pants sewing. The kind I seem to excel at. One of these days, I will take a class to better my pattern-following skills. In the meantime, I will continue having fun!

So, my hubby had a bunch of t-shirts he was going to give to Goodwill, but I saved several to play with. I had intended to use them to make some doll t-shirts and pants. Instead, yesterday, I cut off the top half of one and serged the top edge with the brown thread that was loaded. Then, I smocked it, and today finished that and steamed it and tossed it in the dryer to shrink up the smocking.

Um. It was supposed to be a birthday gift for little e, who turns 1 next week. But ... it was only slightly big on Miss E, and after seeing it on her, I decided I'd be wasting too much to hack it up to fit little e, and besides, Miss E got so excited, it turned into her dress. I added brown ribbon straps and a really cool flower right in the middle, with a couple of her beads. I got the flower idea from the Made By Lex blog. She does some absolutely stunning refashions. I can only hope to be that good someday, but it has given me such inspiration! I will definitely be making more of these; they are way too fun and so simple.

Now that I've come up flat on a few different projects for little e, I think it's time to make that cute little tote bag that I know will turn out perfectly. She is just beginning to love putting things in and taking them out, so it should work as a perfect gift.

Doll clothes

I've been meaning to make doll clothes for Miss E's Bitty Baby for ... uh ... ahem ... well, let's just say a long time. The patterns are going to decay soon. Okay, so not that long, but a long time. I finally did, and they actually came out near-perfect! I am so very lousy at following patterns that this is a major accomplishment. Just a few hours of work, no swearing at all, and doll clothes that are so cute. The dress is really supposed to be a nightgown, but why would you just sleep in something so ornate?! It's a Simplicity pattern, 3517, view B.

The hat was a loose rendition of this tutorial from the purl bee, but made it reversible. It's at 80 percent of the pattern size, but I think next time, I'd make the brim much wider. It seems really skinny to me, but Miss E thought it was just perfect.

Best of all, the dress and hat coordinate with the dress I made last fall for Miss E, from one of the Portabello Pixie patterns from Sandi Henderson. That pattern just rocks -- I've made two dresses (her princess dresses, she calls them), extending the skirt length a bit to make them floor length (which won't last long at her growth rate), and also made a cute Santa shirt from it. Again, a pattern that I don't swear at and can get through in about 3.5-4.0 hours. YAY!

Just letting you know I'm here. And still making things. If you're reading me.

That damn dress

Last week, I finally opened and prepped the pattern for a very EASY sundress for Miss E. I've had this adorable cartoon cat fabric for a couple of months, found the purrfect trim fabric, and sat on it while I did dolls instead. I was pumped. I got it all cut out in no time but the minute I started trying to follow the "very simple" instructions (yeah, right), I realized the problem with a $3 or $4 pattern. The illustrations are awful, showing only a little of the overall piece you're working on, and the written instructions are bleak. There's one partial sentence that covers about eight steps, and it's up to you to figure it out. That's not a challenge I enjoyed, so I slugged it out for about four days until The.Damn.Dress was finished. I about screamed when Miss E stated she did NOT like it and would not wear it ... but that faded away and the next day, she was elated to show it to my sister and refused to take it off on Tuesday.

I admit, it's adorable. You should see it on her, but I neglected to get a photo the whole day she wore it ... She had on red knit pants under it and a puffy-sleeved, short-sleeve brown t-shirt. She smiled ear-to-ear. :) Anyhow, the armholes are not right, but I never could figure out what I was supposed to do from the instructions, so I had to kind of wing it. Fortunately, it manages to lay well enough that you don't really notice, and it's not so bunged that she whines about lumpiness. The pockets are cool; I did learn to do a tuck on a pocket, and I can see using that for an apron sometime. And the ties on the top are a funky teardrop shape on the end, and that may come in handy.

I'm not sure if I'll ever try *this* pattern again, but I am happy with the final result. It just killed my creative mojo for a full week ...

Before the dress, I whipped out an adorable baby bib in just an hour, and that got me all fired up. Now I know I can make these for all of our friends' new babies -- yippee! (I also had to fix the tension on my sewing machine the week prior, so seeing these pretty little stitches made me so very happy. That was quite a lesson in patience.)