The bumblebee dress

I finally finished my 2nd Charlotte Dress for Lucy. It's been mostly-finished for days, but I just couldn't find time to sew the neck (the sewing machine wakes her up, unfortunately!). I am so excited about this dress: I love it, love it, love it!

The fabric is vintage; it was a tablecloth, given to me by a friend. It's covered in bumblebees, ladybugs, apples, and flowers. I love it, so it's been hard to use; I wanted to find just the right project. When I finished the last dress, I liked the pattern so well I wanted to make another right away, and it seemed the perfect thing to show off this cute fabric. The yellow fabric was once curtains--and then a tablecloth--from another friend. And there's the cutest vintage flower button (sorry for the bad photos--it's grey and rainy here today).

And the pocket! I think all little girls' clothes should have pockets (why do only boys get them?). There are so many rocks and sticks and shells and acorns to collect! You have to have somewhere to put them. Lucy loves pockets, and is thrilled when she discovers them on a new outfit. Once upon a time, I'd seen a great pocket on Made by Rae. I filed it away in my brain, and actually remembered where to find it when I wanted it for this dress. ( I made my pieces one inch smaller all around to make a child-sized--but still very big--pocket.) Isn't it cute?

It's getting hard to take pictures of Lucy; she wants to be on the move! In these pictures, she was running full speed around our kitchen island, while in my mind, this song played over and over:

Garden Girl Dress

I sewed something! I can't quite believe it, since it feels like forever since I sat down at the sewing machine. But I saw this deal the other day, and I'd been feeling like Lucy needed a few more long-sleeved dresses, so it seemed too good to pass up. I bought this pattern right away*, and knew if I didn't get to it soon, it would join the giant projects-to-get-to-someday heap.

My first thought was to make it from an orange checked men's shirt I had on my to-refashion pile. I thought it would be cute with the buttons up the front. But that shirt was super-wrinkled, and I knew I would not be ironing Lucy's play dresses! But then I remembered some super-cute 30s-esque fabric I'd bought last summer (I googled it so you could see a close-up, and found some here), and decided the orange shirt would be great as an accent. Lucy loves to dig (any time we ask "what did you do today?" she answers "dig"), so the little gardening girls with shovels are a perfect choice for her right now. I re-used the shirt's pocket, but puckered the top for little-girl cuteness, and added a vintage button.

The dress went together easily (I especially loved the method of putting in the sleeves). If you make one, though, I'd advise two things. First, there was a 12-18 month size and then a 2T size. Lucy wears 12 or 18 month dresses, but I didn't want her to outgrow it too soon, so I made the 2T. You can see it fits just right (and she's short!) Second, I'm not quite sure why the pattern calls for you to make wider pieces for the back of the sash than for the front. I put a pucker in it as I sewed so the edges would line up, and that looks all right, I suppose, but I wonder what was intended. Otherwise, a great pattern, and well worth the price. I know I'll be making it again (it goes from 6 months to 5T). I've got a soft, fine-waled blue corduroy that I think would look great for the next one... (edited to add: turns out the sash difference was an error, and she's fixing it. Yay for responsive sellers!)

*I have no connection to this shop, just bought the pattern and liked it.

Because there are still cold days to come...

...I finally finished some new longies and a wool dress I cut out weeks ago. (Why, oh, why does it take so long to finish things sometimes? Sewing these together took less than 1/2 an hour, and yet, they'd sat waiting for weeks!) I've wanted to share them with you, but I've been having a hard time getting photos; Lucy is no longer an easy model. Here's what I get instead:

You wanted to take a picture of my new dress and longies?
But there are kids to chase! I can't stand still!


What do you mean, stand up to model my pants?
There's a step to climb!


And what's going on over there?


Come out? Don't be silly, mama. I have to eat this bread I found on the floor! And I like being in here!
(We call this spot behind the chairs "baby jail." Lucy puts herself in there all the time and hangs out there to play.)


You want a picture of my new longies?
You'll have to catch me first!

Bye-bye!

Cozy cashmere for the Craft Hope Etsy Shop

So, I decided what to make for the Craft Hope Etsy shop (have you been there yet? Such beautiful things! Going so, so quickly! I'm thrilled to hear they've made over $7,000 so far.)

I'm sorry the pictures are so bad; I finished it in broad daylight, but my model was napping! I wanted to get it to them right away, so I hope shoppers can see past the bad lighting.



Lucy likes it, anyway!



My donation was a "Cashmere Baby Dress and Longies Set"

This wonderfully soft and cozy outfit is made from a recycled, felted lavender cashmere sweater. Included are a pair of "longies" (wool diaper-cover pants), which will come lanolized and ready to wear. (If you don't use cloth diapers, they make lovely leggings, too.) There's also a comfy dress, warm enough for winter, but lightweight enough to carry right over into spring. Eyelet trim on the arms and pocket give it a cute girly look. This outfit is made for play--it moves with your child and doesn't get in the way of crawling or walking.

Want a cute, comfy outfit for your baby? Need some more diaper covers? $30, and all of it goes to Doctors Without Borders. It should be in the shop by tomorrow.

(I said I'd share my books with you, and I will...tomorrow. This seemed more pressing.)

Onesie Refashion

We are blessed with an attic full of hand-me-downs for Lucy, so moving to the next size of clothing means opening the next box. But because of her big cloth-diapered bottom and homemade longies, Lucy sometimes needs different clothes than we've got. In the 6-9 month box, I've been wishing I had a few more dresses. So it was time for another onesie refashion.

I pulled out a few long-sleeved onesies that seemed like they'd make nice dresses. One of them was patterned, and I didn't have fabric that I thought went nicely with it. But then at Goodwill one night, I spotted an adult t-shirt I thought would look great with it:



I love the combo, and thought it would be so easy: cut off the bottom of the shirt, gather the top, sew it onto the onesie, and it's done! It would already be hemmed! But then I took a good look and realized there wasn't enough width to gather it. So I cut the shirt into two pieces, split them up the side, sewed them together into a bigger tube, and gathered that. But now the front of the skirt was hemmed, and the back not. And there was glittery serged stitching on the front, not on the back. So I dug through my vintage trims and found white bias tape with a pink scalloped edge, to cover the mess and tie the top of the dress visually to the bottom. And laboriously picked out all the original stitching. But now, I'm really pleased with how it looks:

Here's the dress that goes with the shoes...

green/orange dress and longies
Originally uploaded by mcghol

This is the dress I made using the free "Itty Bitty Baby Dress" pattern from "Made by Rae." She'll outgrow it before it's warm enough for naked legs, so under it are some wool longies made from a felted sweater. The dress is made from a vintage sheet, and the lining is from a thrifted men's shirt. Because I'm a dork like that, I made myself a skirt to match, following the A-line skirt pattern in Sew What! Skirts.