Friday before Easter I set out to make Miss K's Easter dress.
In 2012 she picked the fabric for
this crazy dress.
In 2013 she also picked the fabric and it
was so pretty in this dress.
In 2014 I simply skipped making her a dress. (whoops)
So I felt that in 2015 I should make her one.
I picked out some pink/yellow/light blue plaid chambray from my stash and McCalls 6919. I was going to try the plus size 12.5 but I considered the finished measurements and went with a straight 12 for K.
The pattern uses facings for the bodice by the buttons; it uses bias tape for the neckline and armholes. I know facings are usually left as is but I despise them and after I spent all that time on this dress the facings started to unravel on the edges. I ended up pinking them. If I made again I might run bias tape along their edges. K picked the buttons - pretty turquoise blue vintage ones.
The skirt portion is almost double wide of what the bodice is. I took this opportunity to try out my newest toy -
a ruffler foot
; It worked great on the "6" setting with a 12 stitch length on my old Kenmore. Ah, no more cruddy and uneven gathers. The foot takes a quick getting used to but after that it is so nice to have.
The bodice on this dress is quite big in the neck/shoulder area and K isn't too fond of this.
Also, the fabric was not as nice as I hoped. It is sturdy and cute, but everyday cute and not Easter fancy cute. I bought this fabric from fashionfabricsclub in February, 2 yards for $8 total. It was listed as "dress weight" 98% cotton, 2% lycra so it has a tiny bit of stretch. It seems a bit heavy to me for a dress.
So... I ended up not wanting this to be her Easter dress and proceeded to start a new one on Saturday (our first Easter gathering was Saturday at 3pm).
I let Miss K pick the fabric and pattern for this second attempt.
She choose the Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress
The top, green fabric has been in my stash since June of 2012. It is Moda Marble Swirls Green and I had only 1/2 yard for $4.49
The middle fabric is 2 yard of cute little bunny fabric that I picked up August 2014 from Mill End Textiles - I used 1.25 yards I think. (no idea on price but most likely $3.49
The pink I had 1/2 yard of from Feb 2013 Monkey's Bizness Market Stalls Pink $4.49
Since I have made this many other times, I was confident I could bust it out in the course of the day just in time for the party.
Miss K wanted the dress, with the pink fabric on the bottom - but I cut out only 1 front panel and then didn't have enough fabric for the back panel. I only had 1/2 yard so this was changed to a shirt.
This time I made sure to interface the "V" portion of the neck as well as the parts of the pocket. This allowed for crisp lines when I turned them. I lined the middle portion with scraps of an old sheet because it was a tad see-through.
I finished just in time for this to be worn Saturday. I had to do a really tiny hem because the original hem would have went right up into the pockets. I had no time so I just serged the lining hem.
I tested another peasant type top (to try to find something for a tiered dress K keeps asking for). I've made this
once in the past but it was short on K and she outgrew it right away.
Kwik Sew 3169
I made the long sleeves with the elastic in them like the pattern indicated but K despised the elastic part - and the sleeve is in two parts, top and bottom, seam allowance makes up the casing. So there was no way to just take out the elastic without cutting the sleeves to short sleeves. I hacked the sleeves off and hemmed. Let's hope she wears this. She is ok with the top but not in love. This was the only good picture I got of the shirt.
Fabric: a Blue/Brown print from fashionfabricsclub. They call it a cotton lawn. 1.75 yards at $5.01 total. I ordered it Jan this year with this project in mind.
Moving on, the weather is warming up around here and shorts are on my mind. I tried out a new size in Jalie 3243 for K, size 152 or "p". These made great shorts
for her in Fall 2013. I shortened the rise to her height of 146 and she thinks they are to short in back. I will have to go for a straight size next time though the front rise was great.
I also used up scraps from my
awesome Lady Skater dress to try out the size of these cute Ottobre capris in 152. 03/2012 #29 I foolishly shortened the rise of these too - before K tried on the other shorts. She hates these and won't even wear them. She couldn't understand why they were not pants and not shorts. Capris aren't for her.
Now on my table I have a Jalie sweatshirt for me, sweatpants for me, Corduroy pants for K, another Jalie swimsuit for both K and me, and a Jalie tank or tee for me and K.
~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~
