A dress for baby Ilona

After the Princess crafting experience, Bella is now rather obsessed with sewing and is now determined to make more things with me.  I'm not complaining, I'm over the moon that she wants to join in and learn at the grand old age of 3!!  Her big brother was out for a sleepover last week, so she decided that we were going to make a new dress for her baby.

I had some material left over from a dress that I'd made for Bella recently, so I thought it might be sweet for them to have matching outfits.  It was a good theory, except she was horrified when she saw the fabric and thought I was chopping up her dress.  After a quick trip upstairs to prove that hers was still safely in the wardrobe, we managed to make a start.

After a few minutes of planning, I got one of the existing doll's dresses to use as a template for the pattern.  Working on the optimistic assumption that it would turn out ok, I figured that it wouldn't hurt to have one in stock to use up my leftover fabric stash on any future efforts!  Bella ended up a little distracted while I was faffing around with the scaled down version of the pattern (and the very accurate process of trying to draw around a finished dress!!) and wandered off to the conservatory to sing Katy Perry songs for a bit.  She wandered back when I promised it was about to get more interesting - once the pattern pieces had been created and cut!

We started off by assembling the bodice, which was lined inside with the same material. Due to tiredness/stupidity I might have accidentally sewn the first armhole closed - but that's why a quick unpick is the favourite tool in my sewing box! On Bella's version of the dress the bodice was also lined, but I included a small invisible zip. For baby Ilona, we sewed the bodice centre back closed because my sanity would not survive a zip of that size.

Bella was really excited to be using the sewing machine. She sat on my knee so that I could control the pedal, and help her guide the fabric without a trip to A&E. I think one of the big plus points of the doll dress was that it was quick to make - essential for the instant results required to keep a 3 year old interested ;)

Once the bodice was assembled we made a slight overlap and then pinned it to the skirt. I mirrored the pattern for Bella's dress again by having two identical pieces, joined at the side seams, rather than at the centre back. If I did feel brave (read insane) enough to add a zip to any future incarnation it would be pretty easy to tweak the pattern. When the bodice and skirt had been joined, all that was left was to hem the skirt. By this point I was the tired embodiment of 'do what I ask, not what I do' - I was ironng the hem and accidentally burned my fingers. It was a very effective demonstration for Bella, albeit a painful one for me!

To finish off the dress we added a press stud to the top of the bodice on the overlap and *ta dah* one finished baby dress. Bella was rightly proud of what we'd made together and is really keen to continue. My ongoing project for dedicated craft space in the garage has now been modified to give Bella her own area. Already she's got her own sewing kit; pin cushion; frisbees; princess perfume and tape measure in there!?! I just need to get a picture of them together in their matching dresses now...

Making a Princess with my princess

We had a short holiday in Wales last week, and a few days in both kids were wishing they'd been allowed to bring more toys with them.  We had planned a trip to Caenarfon for a wander around the castle, so we called into The Works and Bella spotted this:

http://www.theworks.co.uk/p/craft-activities-for-kids/make-your-own-princess-doll/5052089171039

On the surface it looked quite straightforward and I thought it might be a nice quiet activity to make together in the lodge after a day out.  Silly mummy!  The contents of the kit itself are really good, but the suggestion that we would be using double sided sticky tape to hold most of it together didn't equate to something that would last long being 'loved' by a three year old.  After some persuasion on my part we agreed that we would use the sewing machine at home to make the dress, so once we got home and unpacked it was my first order (more like ordered) of business.

Bella is really keen to get involved whenever I'm sewing, so this was a good opportunity to start introducing her to the basics.  After learning how to thread up the machine and some advice about being careful with the very sharp pins (please!!) we started to assemble the dress using a combination of the machine and some hand stitching with colour blend thread.

The bottom of the skirt was already partially assembled, which made me rather happy because it went together quickly.  Attaching the bodice and the sleeves was a little more problematic because it was so damn fiddly!

The bodice part of the dress was subjected to some of the dressmaking techniques that I learned on my course and we decided to add a press-stud fastener to the back of the bodice for a couple of reasons.  First, because of the way I'd faffed with it, it didn't joint together and looked odd.  Secondly, Bella has a fascination with wanting to undress and re-dress dolls, so it seemed to be a sensible addition.  The hair was cut into lengths - with my big girl wielding the scissors no less - and tied together, which was strangely satisfying and actually worked out as I wanted it to (which makes a change).  Finally the eyes and mouth were supposed to be attached using the sticky-back on the felt, which again didn't suggest durability of more than a couple of hours, after which I would spend countless hours looking for the bits.  Too much of my life is already devoted to the location of lost/hiding toys so I did a quick stitch in each eye (ouch) and a line of running stitches across the mouth for the selfish reason of my own sanity (and also because I didn't want it to look too creepy too soon)!

The end result was something that we were both really pleased with, although now that Bella knows we can make dresses for the Princess doll, I have a sneaky suspicion that I will soon be making many more from the off cuts of my bigger (and seemingly faster) projects.  Two happy princesses:

Crafting withdrawal...

Due to a rather unexpected incident, we've had to make some major changes to working hours in order to accommodate childcare.  The plus side is that I've had my beautiful children all to myself and we've had a lot of fun.  The downside is that they've worn me out so much that I've had no energy left to craft when they're asleep.

The main project that I've still got to finish at the moment is my halter neck dress for the work Summer party next week.  It's mostly 'done' but still needs the invisible zip inserting; back skirt seam sewing and the bottom of the skirt hemming.  All being well I might get a couple of hours to finish it off this weekend?  If I do, pictures to follow...

It's surprisingly quiet at work at the moment (silly me for putting that out in the universe!), and I'm averaging one book every two days.  In order to give my Kindle a bit of a break I'm thinking about making a start on some smaller sewing projects that I can do during my lunch break.  The first is in the form of some wonderful book bands that I found in:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mollie-Makes-Woodland-Knitting-Papercraft/dp/1909397121/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436545396&sr=8-1&keywords=mollie+makes+woodland+friends

I've already got orders for the acorn, now I just need to source some coloured elastic and I'm in business!  I feel a trip to Abakhans will be in my not too distant future.

Red Summer dress from the first two weeks of college

When I bought the material I could picture it becoming this dress, and despite nearly a two year wait it finally did! There are a few things that I would change for the next time I use this pattern - namely altering the bust slightly. Before sewing in the straps at the back it seemed to fit perfectly, but rather typically when 'done' it was a bit roomy at the sides. The ever patient Louise suggested crossing the straps over at the back (accompanied by a warning not to be ripping my dress off!!!) which offered a perfect solution to the problem. The downside was trying to put on a bra having crossed the straps over to match - but that's another story!

Make it sew, number one

Well, after some considerable time away from my blog I am now tentatively tiptoeing back. It's been a rather unprecedented couple of years in terms of work and big "life" changes but I'm now more determined than ever to craft!

A strategic move to a bigger house (nearly a year ago) has given me much more space to hide my wool stash. Plus I don't have to banish everyone from the house whenever I want to get my sewing machine out! I'm working on setting up my dedicated craft space in the garage, which has been slightly hampered by my procrastination in sorting out boxes from the move...

Most of my sewing endeavours (hmmm attempts is more accurate) so far have either been small-scale or rushed and stayed together more by luck than design. Despite only sewing intermittently, I hoped that I had gathered some skills along the way. So, to test that theory I signed myself up to an intermediate sewing night class - because I have such an abundance of spare time between full time work and beautiful children!?! In truth I really enjoy challenging myself, and my word I got what I'd hoped for!

The course was over 6 weeks at Tameside college and our tutor Louise was amazing! I set myself the rather ambitious target of one sewn item per fortnight. By the end of the 6 weeks I'd managed three dresses for myself, one for my daughter and a draped halterneck top. Not bad going for a novice - and they've all survived wearing and washing, which makes me indescribably happy.

I thought that blogging as I continue with my self-imposed crafting challenges would be a nice way to look back and hopefully see some progress and improvement. The first dress I completed was from the fabric bought at Abakhans in August 2013!! It might have taken a while to go from material to dress, but I was very happy with the end result...