Flowery Dress - the making of (Part 3)

Here we are at the 3rd instalment of the flowery dress. In the previous post, I'd just finished gathering the skirt, so next is sewing it onto the bodice.

Sewing the skirt and bodice together.

Flowery Dress - the making of (Part 2)

Only after finishing the bodice did I realise that the design flaw that I thought would be a design flaw was indeed a design flaw.

Oh well. I sort of fixed it. Although in doing so it meant the rest didn't work.

Read and enjoy!

Making the ties for the lace-up back

Flowery Dress - the making of (Part 1)

Hi everyone!

As happens often these days, it's been a fair long time no post. I haven't been up to nothing though. I've actually been doing more sewing. Yaya. I promised my ickle sister Lucy that I would make her a dress for her birthday. Well, her birthday was 12th of July and as of yet I've not put a single stitch into her dress... but with good reason! Being rather skint at the moment, I can't afford to waste the lovely black polka-dot fabric that I bought for her dress, and since I'm making a design of my own, I figured it would be a good idea to make a test dress. Otherwise known here on in as my flowery dress. Made from great charity-shop-bought material which once upon a time lived a better life as a duvet cover. But don't tell.

So anyway. I'm making this test dress to my measurements so that it won't go to waste, but also because I can then test it on myself as I go. As yet the design seems fine, but then, I've only done the bodice and straps so far, and you can't go far wrong with some straight straps on a shapeless bodice! It's the next bit - the lace up back - that will tell me whether or not my design is a complete loada trash... ;)

Check out the flowery goodness.

Rearranging

Today we pretty much decided that Isaac hates his little carry cot thing that is currently his bed. He'd only ever sleep in it if you put him in  v e r y  s l o w l y  a n d  c a r e f u l l y  after he fell asleep somewhere else - usually in my arms! Of course this means that he spends most nights in our bed, which although lovely, means that none of us sleep very well. Not that we sleep that well anyway as we are (or rather, I am) constantly getting up to feed him, but you know what I mean.

It occurred to me sometime in the night that actually we could probably fit the proper cot in our room, and since it's much more like our bed, he might actually like it enough to fall asleep in! When we first moved here I thought we'd never be able to fit a cot in there as well as a double bed and a chest of drawers, but rather surprisingly it works quite well and the room feels (if anything) bigger than it did with a thin table bearing a carry cot!

Friday Favourites

I feel like I'm stealing the name here, but I wanted to start a 'favourites' listing, and it's friday, and, well, they go together well. However, one of this week's favourites actually has their own 'friday favourites' on there... hmm, great minds think alike I suppose! I did, however, steal the idea for the purdy presentation. Consider it flattery ;-)

But anyway. Here we go.




It's official: blogger images SUCK. Can't do ANYthing with 'em. Thank goodness I can (sort of) do HTML!

Have a good weekend!

Baby gyms of the coat hanger kind

Ah, how rubbish I am at remembering to post a blog! Mind you, having a baby doesn't exactly promote activity. At least, not activity of the non-baby-related kind. Ho hum.

Yes, I've barely touched the piano since Isaac was born. That makes me sad. One more thing to try and remember to do, and when something doesn't count as 'useful' (i.e. related to housework, baby things or shopping) it easily gets forgotten at the moment.

On a brighter note - who needs expensive baby gyms?

Red dress - the making of

After the announcement of the birth of my cousin's daughter Z, I decided this was a perfect opportunity to try making something. Y'know, something proper. After all, my poor neglected sewing machine has only done mundane jobs such as turning up jeans and darning socks as yet! To be fair, though, I only got it at Christmas, and even if I had thought about making Isaac something before he was born, the massive belly would've rather scuppered plans, I feel.

This isn't a tutorial - most definitely not! - but does show how I put this dress together and might help anyone wanting to try out the pattern. Speaking of which, the pattern is a freebie from the fab Made By Rae - do check out her blog! I happened upon her pattern when searching for 'baby dress pattern' or something along those lines. It's a great pattern in that it's easy for newbies, because it has no fastenings, buttons, or anything else like that which I would totally screw up.

All the fun stuff after the break.

Sewing, washing, sleeping...

Well, the dress is coming along, but not entirely finished. Just got the bottom seam to do, and I really wasn't sure how to do it. Because of the pattern being slightly different to what I was doing, I should have done the bottom seam before everything else, not after! But oh well, I think I can make it look okay. I'm going to be sad to give this dress away! I couldn't really make another to give away though, this one's taken me far too long already - Z's already nearly 3 weeks old, so goodness, it'd better fit her!