Sewing a Christmas Dress – A different direction

Here’s a quick update about sewing my daughter’s Christmas dress

Guess what? I’m back to to Plan A. You know, the first pattern I drafted? Plan B, was looking way too much like a choir robe for my taste, and since I don’t have a lot of time to “make it right,”  I quickly switched directions.

Knit Fabric
I’m turning this lovely fabric into a Christmas dress for my daughter

 

My daughter just tried on the above dress and is really liking it a lot. I really don’t have too much more to do, but since the program is tomorrow, I most likely will complete everything this evening. You now… if I stuck with Plan A from the beginning, I would have been finished yesterday. 😉

Wear something Christmassy…

This Tuesday, my daughter’s Lutheran School, will be performing their Christmas program. It’s the middle schools turn, the lower school had their program last week.

Mom, she said, “The drama teacher told us to wear something Christmassy.” Well duh…. My daughter looked a bit worried. I’m guessing because she recently outgrew most of her clothes. They wear uniforms at school. Forget about dress clothes, with the exception of the dress I sewed for her middle school dance, she has nothing. This summer, and continuing into the fall, she hit a growth spurt. Clothes that were fitting no longer do, let’s not even talk about shoes! The girl can now wear mine. My goodness, she’s growing fast. You want to know something? She can now wear my clothes!  She’s already as tall as me! Ok… that’s not saying much since I’m only 5′. Ha!

And so yesterday, when I finally had some time, I started racking my brain of what to sew in a short time frame.

Smile self drafted dress pattern
Simple self drafted dress pattern

 

I even drafted a pattern for a simple dress, but ultimately I went another route and have created a pattern for a flowing dress.

Fabric cut and ready to sew

 

After much deliberation, we chose winter white satin for the fabric. I thought green and red would be awesome, but my daughter wrinkled her nose and said, “I want something a bit different.” That’s fine with me.

If you look closely, you’ll notice that some of the lining is peeking out underneath the winter white fabric. It’s pink! I would have used something like red or melted gold if (I had that on hand) but I didn’t, so I’m using what I have. I never liked muted linings, I always leaned towards the unexpected and it’s even better if it’s bright and beautiful.

Brenda Lee: Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree

This song will be playing at the Christmas program. In fact, my daughter, and her best friend, have a dance routine for this song. She’s been practicing solo and occasionally with me, at home. I do believe, I might add horsehair braid to the hem. The dress being made, is floaty and perfect for twirling.

 

Sam & Libby gold ballerina slippers
Sam & Libby gold ballerina slippers

There will be one contrast, a gold belt that works perfectly with her newly purchased Sam & Libby gold ballerina slippers. I’m also I’m thinking of creating a flower out of gold fabric or even make one out of beads. We’ll see, Tuesday is right around the corner.

So now the fun begins… later today, I’ll start sewing this outfit. It’s actually very simple and it has to be, since Tuesday is when they’re performing. The bulk of this outfit will be completed today and I’ll be finished tomorrow.

All you need is love…

I finally got around to submitting my site to a few news aggregator websites.

follow-me-on-bloglovinBloglovin’ was one of the first places where I left my mark. To be honest, I have not been in a rush to do this… I’ve been content to write here about the various projects (mainly sewing) that have been keeping me occupied.

In addition, I have not been commenting on any crafting sites… at least not linking back to Threadlover. But I have sporadically commented and virtually tagged my other eclectic site.

This morning, I stumbled upon a post where the blog write linked to one of her first sewing projects. I actually do think I have some of those items. That’s going back a ways though. Let’s see that’s about 38 years ago. My first projects were hand stitched when I was about six years old. I’ll have to dig through one of my trunks to showcase one of those projects, but I do have easily accessible projects in my closed. Those aren’t my early projects, since they were sewn in my twenties, but they are projects that I was very proud of and I still am. I’ll be sure to posts pictures of some of those items soon.

A machine embroidered quilt

For the past several months, I’ve been mulling over the idea of making a quilt. I’m not new to quilt making, I have made them before. I do have a specific type of quilt that I want to make in mind… a machine embroidered quilt! Think about it, this will give me an opportunity to use my embroidery machine a bit more.

I decided on a creeptacular theme. Too bad, I didn’t start sewing on this earlier, right? If I had, it might have been ready in time for Halloween. I’ve already chosen the theme, creepy critters will be scattered about the quilt panels, with the center block having a very large and elaborate quilt design.

Embroidery.Creepy Doll_1 10.30.14

 

Take a look at the above embroidered panel. It’s a sample I created in October. As with all my embroidered items, I made note of the threads used and will be sure to stitch it out, within the exact colors, again.  The above design came from Urban Threads. They have similar designs as the one featured above, and I’ve happily stitched out a few. I have a feeling that many of their designs will find their way onto my quilt. I love their site! I won’t even tell you how many embroidered designs I’ve purchased from there.

I’m definitely familiar with quilt making, having make several for my Lutheran church. In fact, the quilting ladies were thrilled to see me. I was the youngest member. In fact the ladies constantly lamented how that young ladies my age had no desire to indulge in hand crafts. I’m not all that young, I’m 44, but they are all in their late 60s and above, with the oldest quilter being 94! To them, I was still a baby!

The only thing left to do, is decide on the fabric colors, choose all the embroidered designs that I want to include and of course… start sewing and embroidering.

Resource

Urban Threads – Voodoo Doll

Mindless knitting… it’s not always about sewing

Last evening, I picked up my beloved Hiya Hiya needles and continued knitting this simple ribbed hat. I enjoy knitting and my favorite no brainer stitch would be the ribbed stitch.

Knitted Hat_1 12.11.14

 

With this hat, I used (k2, p2) which is easy, and fits comfortably when you don’t want to spend time looking at your stitches. My daughter finds the soft clicking on my stainless steel Hiya Hiya needles to be very soothing and I must say that I like it also. Also, with this stitch, I don’t have to look at my needles while I’m stitching.

The yarn used is Malabrigo yarn. This yarn is incredibly soft and about the only type of wool that I can wear without itching. Malabrigo comes from the wool of merino sheep.

This evening, I plan to get do a bit more knitting, while hanging out with my daughter. We’ll most likely watch something on the Amazon Fire TV. I really would like to finish watching The Woman In Black, I’ve added it to my watchlist and have watched some of it… but have been much too busy with sewing and hanging with my daughter to watch it completely.

 In other news…

I finally finished sewing my embroidered top and I’m wearing it today at work!