Sewing with Linen

Sometimes, it's satisfying just to have some nice, crisp, ironed and topstitched pieces complete. These are the beginning of a new project that I'm making for the girls--linen jumpers from Ottobre Design Autumn 2010 issue. I have been wanting to make them since the issue came out, and finally got the nerve.  The color isn't good in the pictures, but the smaller pair--sz. 116--is deep plum, while the larger pair--sz. 128--is brown with silver roses.  My one concern is that the effect of the design will ultimately resemble clown pants. We shall see!

 I know--I really should stop putting images taken with my iPod on the blog...  Better pics next time.

Easter Dresses - Final Product!

Okay, it's a little late, and I did have them done for Easter (about 2:30 A.M., to be precise...), but here are the finished Easter dresses!  The delay was caused by my woeful lack of photo editing skills.  I would like to have pixellated or blurred rather than cropping, but I finally settled on a combination of cropping and vignette in iPhoto.  Here they are, modeled!

Now, I must admit to cutting a corner.  I did not stitch the lining in.  It was very late when I was wrapping up...  So the bottom edge of the bodice lining is free-floating.  It should have been stitched by hand.  And I never can quite get the lining attached to the zipper correctly--which is part of why I tend to avoid lined bodices like the plague.  But it is almost impossible to tell when they're wearing them!!  A trained eye would notice the lining riding up.  *sigh*  I feel guilty.  Can you tell?   But otherwise I'm so happy with them.  They don't look like drapes at all! (That was a fear when I came home with my fabric choices.)  And Bellie (in green) wore hers for picture day last week, and was (appropriately) the belle of the ball!  At least two children wanted a dress just like it.  One little girl asked Bellie's daddy if he would buy one for her!  Needless to say, she was pleased with the attention.  And I was pretty happy with it, too!

Easter Dresses - Penultimate Post!

When I post the next picture, they will be done and modeled!  Last night I assembled the back and front skirt panels before bed. This morning I stitched the side seams, gathered and attached the skirts to the bodices.  I am pretty happy with my gathers this time, but does anyone who sews not hate gathering??

I took a better picture--with my camera instead of my iPod--to celebrate my progress:

I still have to put in the invisible zipper and hem the skirt, and then they'll be done!  Ready for Easter after all!  Not so my first project, which was supposed to turn into bunny treat bags.  Oh well.  Maybe next year!

Easter Dress Progress: Bodice done!

Well, except the zipper. I love the sleeves. And the best part? The sleeves didn't have to be hemmed!

Easter Dresses: Slowly but Surely...

Well, between one thing and another, it was long after Spring Break (the second week after Spring Break, to be precise) when I cut out Easter dresses for my girls. Tonight I finally started sewing them, so here's the bodice front. Keep your fingers crossed that I will have the rest done before Sunday!

Easter Scrap Project - Next steps

Having cut a whole bunch of 5" squares,

I'm pairing them up...

...and tracing shapes on them:

(This could take a while...)

Easter Dresses! - Pt 1

Yesterday I bought some fabric to make the girls Easter dresses. The first fabric I found was at the local quilt shop:

It's lovely, but it would require just exactly the right dress pattern, and I just couldn't come up with the right combination with the ModKid and Ottobre patterns I already own, so I went to JoAnn's to see what they might have. (I'll probably go back for the puff flower print sometime when I find the right pattern...)

At JoAnn's, I found a beautiful floral that made me think instantly of one of the patterns I had in mind for the first fabric. It proved nearly impossible to match, however... until I got to the special occasion fabric. There, I happened to find polyester shantung in exactly the right colors. So I figured, what the heck? I may regret it at some point, but the fabric is so pretty, maybe not!

Here is the fabric:

And here is the pattern--a lovely version made by Astrid from Denmark, who blogs at Connecting the Dots and sews with Ottobre patterns:

This pattern comes from the Summer 2008 issue of Ottobre.  My only reservation (besides the fear that I somehow managed to buy too little fabric...) is that with the way the shantung ravels, I should probably make French seams.  I don't think the bodice is lined.  And I'm not a fan of having a lined, sleeveless bodice.  I've had some issues with trying to turn a lined, sleeveless bodice right-side-out.  I need to check on that.  But anyway, I haven't washed the fabric or traced the pattern yet, so I have time to figure it all out!