Sewing Dreams

Thanks, Mimi

Yes, I've been dreaming of sewing.  I have only a week left of my Christmas break and have had very little time in the studio.  Some of that time I spent picking up and putting away the items left from the Natchitoches show.  
I did, however, manage to make a few stitches: I added an applique on Dusti's new bag (a gift from her Mimi) and made a little dress for one of the tykes.


Dusti's bag is very pretty and colorful, so I found a solid yellow that is an almost perfect match and auditioned a couple of letters until we found a font she liked. 


Then she gave me an idea of how large she wanted the letter, which turned out to be really big.  In fact, I carefully measured the space to make sure the letter would fit.  


I drew and cut out a pattern, double checking to make sure it would work.  From there, the process was easy, although the sewing wasn't.  It's difficult to fit a shaped bag under the needle and keep the zigzag stitch relatively straight.  In the end, she was very happy with her bag, and I discovered that it's not something I want to do very often.

The find

 Tonight I pulled together a odd little dress.  My sisters and I found a pattern and fabric while cleaning up at my mom's house.  I brought it home out of curiosity, thinking the pattern would be a good one to keep.

the plan

Apparently mom was planning to make a dress using fabric from another project.  She ran out of fabric after cutting out the back and facings, and there weren't enough pieces left for the front. 



Because it intrigued me, I decided to figure out something to finish the dress.  The fabric is a red/white gingham, so I decided to make a color-block front using a solid white from my stash. 

Isn't it just cute?

It took about an hour to make the dress.  It was fun to watch something come together that I didn't begin or plan.  Since it's a size three, I decided to stitch it on the Juki serger.  The seam allowance is smaller than a regular seam allowance which makes the dress just a tiny bit larger.  

back of dress

I'm hoping it will fit one of the younger grandchildren--Marley, Caki, or Sophie--which we call the tykes.  Of course, the plan is to make two others so each will have one of these cute little dresses.  They are so easy and quick that I should be able to make two more before we go back to school.



Take a visit to the Aussie Hero Quilts website to see how JanMaree and others are working to support the men and women of Australia who serve in their military forces. She just started the blog today in an attempt to encourage others to make quilts, pillowcases and laundry bags for the soldiers.