all dressed up

 I've been dress sewing! this first one is a variation on the shirt that I've made before like here

I decided to try my hand at altering a pattern and made it into a dress. 

I also added a felt tree applique. after perusing the internet for images of "modern trees" I got frustrated and just drew this with chalk on my felt. 

it's hard to tell in the pictures but I had to do some re-engineering after sewing the dress up. Clover is so petite that this thing just HUNG on her, so after staring and thinking and staring some more at my project, I decided to do some pintucks. there are two on either side of the placket in the front and seven in the back. I am officially in love with the added detail of a pintuck. it's such a simple embellishment, but I think it adds something really special. not only that, but I managed to take the dress in just enough that it fits her a lot better. 

this is also the first project that I have used a serger on! 

most of the seams on the inside are serged. for the most part, I pre-serged the edges of the fabric so I could press the seams open. I have to say, now that I have figured out the machine a little better, I am loving the look of the nice overlocked seams. 

ok, this next project makes me really happy.....

this dress is made from a pattern by shwin and shwin and I completely plan on making more of these. 

I finally brought my poor self to cut into the last fabric from Bolt that I had been hoarding and burying under other fabrics to avoid using. the bodice is what I believe to be a hemp fabric, and if not just hemp, a linen/hemp blend. at any rate, it feels gorgeous on the fingertips and must be very comfy on Clover's little girl skin. the print is the Bryant Park stuff I first added to my pinterest board, and then procured at Bolt, before obsessively burying and possibly whispering " My Precious" to. weird things happen to you when you start sewing....

Clover is really stoked on this dress, and I have to say that I am too. I've got to get some pictures of her actually wearing it because she just looks darling. we went to a gathering of friends tonight and she wore this. she looked like a little lady walking around in the dress. it made me happy and broke my mommy heart all at once. 

once I was done with the construction of the dress, I decided to follow the recommendation of the pattern designers and add some flowers. recently I saw a blogger make these adorable felt flowers by just stitching some lines through a few layers of felt, so I riffed off of that. these buttons had been in my stash without any matches, and they matched the dress perfectly, so I used them as the center of the flowers.

I also anchored the cuffs down with a few buttons that Tim's mom gave me. they are these really cute little shank buttons

the buttons on the back of the dress are from Tim's mom too. some more round little shank buttons. they're cute because they really resemble large beads. the last picture I'm sharing is just to prove that I have learned to make my serger work according to plan, at least some of the time. it is a rude gesture to the people who laughed with pity and bemusement in their eye, and told me with more than a hint of sarcasm "Good luck!" when I said that I planned to learn to use a serger without a manual or a class. my regular sewing machine stitches may be gruesome in this photo, but my serging is functional. so eat my serging waste, mockers.