I invited ladies over on Sunday to make cards and stuff, but...no one came. It was okay, though, because then I had a clean house and time to sit down and finish my thank you notes from my school shower. Unfortunately, I had baked 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies to share, but when I had no one with whom to share them, I ate about 16 over the course of the day. 15.75 if you don't count the part that Coco ran away with and scarfed down. I guess I could have shared more with Coco, but I can't help it if I'm stingy with my cookies. He's lucky he got away with the piece he did before I noticed.
Anywho, I had purchased some fabric to make some dresses for baby girl, and had the intent of making them with Ginger last Friday, but I hadn't expected her knowledge of sewing to be absolutely zero, so I had to come up with some other easy project to do--we made a baby blanket that has leg pockets in it...hard to describe, but it will be easy to use. Because of this setback, I decided that yesterday I would make my practice dress.
The front view:
And the back view:
The pattern I used was New Look 6576, but I thought the appliques looked stupid so I left them off. When I was done, there was something missing, so I added the grosgrain ribbon at the empire waist. The original pattern also called for buttons at the shoulders, but I'm going to put velcro there when I get around to it. This was mostly because I do not have a button hole foot, but even more so, I do not have a user's manual for my machine, so I wouldn't know how to do a button hole even if I had the foot. Velcro it is.
I'm still debating about whether or not I want to waste my time and make the headband. I'm also thinking about making a pair of bloomers from a different pattern and maybe a sun hat, but we'll see. This was, after all, just a practice dress, though I'm pleased with how it turned out. And when I say practice dress, I don't mean "poor quality," I just mean that it's how I figured out the ins and outs of the pattern. It's not perfect, but it is pretty good.
The intent for this pattern was to be able to make a sun dress for football season in the famous Alabama football houndstooth pattern, but I couldn't decide what size to make. How big will Baby Beaver be in September? My choices were Newborn (7-13 lbs), Small (13-18 lbs), Medium (18-21 lbs), and Large (21-24 lbs). The dress above is a medium. And I think it will be too big to be worn in September. So, I may give it to my friends who gave me all the baby clothes. I think their little girl will be able to wear it this summer since she's 8 months now.
I went out and bought the pattern again today so that I can make the houndstooth version in size small. While I was there, I picked up some cute green monkey fabric that was on sale for cheap ($1.50), so I may use that as my practice dress for the smaller size.
6 comments:
I don't think you need a special foot to do button holes. All you need is a foot that allows a zig-zag stitch, which is probably the standard foot that's on your machine. There are special ZIPPER feet, but you can do zippers with the standard foot, too.
If you have a machine newer than, say... 1990, it probably has an 'automatic' four-step buttonhole setting. On both of my recent machines (both Singers), it was on the bottom side of the big stitch-length dial on the front. You have to manually turn the dial to do each step, but it determines the zig-zag width and distance, etc.
The dress is super cute, by the way :-)
That dress IS cute! I learned how to knit, but I've never known how to sew. i'm thinking about taking a sewing class at UT this summer. We'll see...
I'm impressed! I wish I had a sewing machine. Oh, and that I could sew. I've been toying with the idea of taking classes for fun, but I am pretty busy right now with the move. Technically, I have a sewing machine (Singer) from the 20s and it still works. Not fancy at all, but it looks cool in it's wooden cabinet!
Hey, that is adorable. I've made Cara a dress and some PJs, last spring, when I took a class through Katy ISD's continuing ed. I really want to make something cute for my cousin's wedding for Micah...but haven't really looked, and I need the time to do it...it's 6/6! i love it! The GREAT thing about having girls and DRESSES in general, is if they are a little bit big, it's not that big of a deal...they may be a little long...but who wants to show their girls privates anyways, the longer the better in my book! :)
The dress is adorable! You did a really good job!
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