Valentines toddler dress: What I'm Makin' Monday

I'm getting into the groove of making dresses now. This was the first time I put a dress based on a pattern together without reading the directions on the pattern. Following the Playdate Peasant Dress pattern. I've used before. Ok, maybe I glanced at it a little. But the point is, I'm getting into a groove.

A reader asked me if I'm sad that she'll only get to wear her seasonal dresses a time or two. I am a little sad looking at all of her Christmas dresses and outfits, and Halloween outfits I have piled to the side, but I made most of them big so she can wear them next year, or at least as a top next year.

The reason I've only been making holiday outfits so far is because I knew the only way I'd actually sew these things is if I have a deadline. And a holiday is a great sewing deadline. Seasonal fabric is usually on sale too... At least at Hancock it is. About 40-70% off. It's hit or miss at Hobby Lobby, which is where I got the fabric for this dress.

Now that I've made it through three, almost four holidays I'm getting the hang of this.

I bought a ruffler foot and a rolled-hem foot for my new machine and it's helping so much with these dresses. No more ironing and pinning the tiny hems. Yay!

My ruffler is cool, and I've learned how to use it (thanks YouTube!) but I'm having a hard time gauging how ruffly to make the ruffles so they fit perfectly on the bottom of the dress. If anyone knows how to do this without guess and check let me know!

Oh, and I got the hang of shirring with this dress! It's gathered at the center of the sleeves and in the middle of the dress.

I didn't make the bows, she got these over the top Valentines pieces from Izzy Diane's Boutique and modeled them with the dress for us.

So now that I have this pattern down I want to experiment with other patterns I have, and learn how to follow a tissue paper pattern. They are much less expensive than the Etsy ones and there's much more variety. My friend Jennie is going to teach me (same friend who helped me with my first ever dress for her in October!). I know some people are good at following tutorials, and I prefer that if they're easy enough but if there's too much math involved (ie: take a third of your child's weight size, and measure to the knee, then divide that by 1.5...) I get lost. So I prefer to use actual numbers that have been figured out for the specific size I'm making (18 months, 2T... etc).

Many of you have written and said my craftiness is motivating you to give it a try. Let me tell you, if you're thinking about it... GO FOR IT! If I can do it, anyone can. Seriously. There's few things more exciting than having someone rave about the outfit your kid is wearing and complimenting your work. And I think there's something to be said for learning skills we can pass down to out children. Home economics has all from disappeared!

Not to brag or anything but I made the leg warmers too.

As I find easy tutorials and free patterns to attempt I'll try to keep bringing them to you. If you're looking for a dress pattern to try that's not to hard, the one I have linked above in this post (ok here it is again) is a great place to start, and the price was right for me. There are pattern pieces you print out, tape together, then cut around to make your dress pieces, and lots of step-by-step photo directions to follow until you get the hang of it and don't need the directions at all!

Oh, and side note, I made the leg warmers too... Super easy! I got a two pack of women's' Valentines knee-socks at Walmart for $3, cut off the feet, rolled the ends (didn't even sew them), and TADA! Takes seconds. See... You can do that!

So I hope this was a little bit of eye-candy for today, and a bit of a pep-talk for some sitting on the sidelines waiting for the push to jump into the Domestic Diva game.

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Her first pair of pants: What I'm Makin' Monday (a day late)

No, not her first pair of pants EVER. But the first pair of pants I've ever made her.

My friend Taylor, aka Alt Mama, and I have a deal. I'm going to help her learn to sew, and she's going to teach me how to cook. To be honest I'm sorta felt like a blind man leading the blind with the sewing part, but I at least know how to read toddler patterns now, and how to find videos on YouTube to get us along.

Taylor was a super fast learner. So while I was putting along at my grandma speed of sewing, she was putting the pedal to the metal and flying through the stitching. And on my old machine by the way! I got this new baby for Christmas and she took my old one off my hands.

I had never made Lil' J pants before, so when we found this pattern for toddler pants, I didn't realize how small the butt area was. I guess the creator's baby has a teeny booty and since my daughter not only has my fabulous booty jeans, but she also wears cloth diapers, so these ended up being a bit snug, and sort of hip-huggers for her... Er, where her hips would be if she had some.

Taylor wanted to make reversible pants and she had two of the cutest fabrics picked out for them. I decided I'd use some of my fabric stash to make Lil' J some too, so I grabbed some purple and pink polkadot and headed over to her place with our machines.

Now had she asked me to make a toddler dress I could have nailed the instructions no problem. But I had never even seen a pants pattern before, much less reversible. So this was a bit tricky for me at first. But after watching this youtube video about thirty times I realized what I needed to do to get the pants part down, then making them reversible was pretty much a sinch.

I love the purple side with the pink polkadots sticking out on the cuffs. I haven't been daring enough to try them facing the other way yet, although if anyone can pull off pink polkadot pants it's gotta be her.

Next time I want to add big ruffles to the bottom and make them bell bottoms. Pants aren't such a bad idea for winter time. My husband thinks this, and her Adidas run suit grandma and grandpa got her for Christmas are the best outfits ever. So I may need to start adding more pants patterns to my collection soon.

 Whatcha think?

I seriously overestimated my sewing abilities

I had this fantastic idea to design my own dress for Lil' J. I wanted it to have lots of ruffles and some smocking. I hadn't tried either skill on her dresses yet.

A few years ago I bought a bunch of gingerbread fabric when I was sewing holiday dog collars. I had that left over, along with a slew of red and white striped fabric I picked up from a thrift store about a year ago. Finally I could put these to good use and make a (free) dress!

I decided I didn't need a pattern... I'd wing it! But come to find out I'm not much of a "wing it" person, because I still wrote down the measurements I wanted and the steps I'd need to take.

I cut all the fabric for the different pieces and placed them out how I planned for them to go. Easy enough right? I'd just gather the ruffles, and hem the ends, then sew them all together.

HA HA HA! ... No.

About 8 hours and 80 f-bombs later, I was done. I think it's cute but I also think I've made cuter in less time. In the beginning I was taking photos for a tutorial but about a quarter of the way through I realized I hadn't a clue what I was doing and no one should try to imitate this the way I was. There's probably a much simpler way to make something like this.

My little model was already sleeping when I finished so I'll have to post some picture of her wearing this later.

Shirring wasn't too hard but it was a pain in the butt going back and forth from straight stitching to shirring, changing the tension, and re-testing the machine because it's finicky. I added some fun funky stitching at the hem line, and made some matching leg warmers from womens socks. It's warm here in Texas so she may be able to get away with the short sleeves for part of the month but I'll most likely have her wear a long sleeved white tee underneath.

Whatcha think?! Turns out designing isn't as easy as I had hoped, and I'm not as advanced in my sewing skills as I thought.
 
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