Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Simple dress

Front of dress

Maureen decided that 4:30am was a good wakeup time today. Only after I waved the white flag and had a cup of coffee did she finally drift back off to sleep at 6:45. Better make another cup. (My apologies for the dark, yellowish photography, but it's early.)

Back of dress

I had been to the thrift store last week (or the week before?) and found some cute pillowcases for 50 cents each. And they got me thinking about pillowcase dresses like these, these, and these. Robb left for Virginia beach midday on Sunday, so I had the delicious luxury of not even turning on the tv all evening. Yes, on Superbowl Sunday. Everyone is really shocked and confused when I tell them that. But the baby was sleeping good--went to bed early and never made a peep--so I decided to try my hand at making the Simple Dress in Lotta Jansdotter's book Simple Sewing for Baby using one of the thrifted pillowcases. Just finished the embroidery this morning.

Hem detail

I must register two complaints about this sewing book. Number one: the patterns don't have sizes, not in the book itself or on the pattern sheets. If you are sewing gifts for a baby shower then it's no problem, but making these clothes for a little one who is already out in the world is bound to involve guesswork and disappointment. Mama's time is at a premium, so that's not cool. Number two: bias tape on every opening of every garment. Ug. I repeat, ug. It's the right way to do things, but what a drag making and sewing tape onto everything. And a waste of good fabric making those 45 degree angle strips.

Using embroidery to cover bad sewing

Back closure in progress...

Back closure detail

Please note: decent embroidering trumps bad sewing any day of the week!

So I consider the finished dress a "rough draft" of a future, better sewn dress for baby. I learn a little teeny bit more with each sewing project, but I have way more confidence than skill at this point. Heh.

2 comments:

old dog said...

SSSSOOOOO cute. Hey, I have something you would love... A bias tape maker. They are the coolest timesaver. Never need bias again. Just cut regular strips, not angled. When I get to the fab store I will look one up for you! Love the embroidery. The print is springlike too!

Barb Mowery said...

Oooo a bias tape maker would be a very cool birthday present for me!! I cheated and didn't cut my tape on the bias anyway--there wasn't enough fabric leftover to go diagonal. And then I stitched it on like quilt binding rather than hidden inside the arm and neck openings as the pattern specified. So lots of cheating going on.

Question: does cutting the tape on the bias make the tape stretchy-ish?