A Dress Tale

The story is always the same...once I have some new fabric, I want to sew.

I thought the Far Far Away unicorns would make a cute dress for Agnes using the smocked sundress pattern from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. The pattern is simple and easy to follow, and Heather has great illustrations in her book for almost ever step. Heather was also on The Martha Stewart Show in May, and she showed Martha how to make the sundress. The 13 minute segment is available for viewing, so I with the additional visual instructions, I figured this project would go smoothly.*

The Far Far Away fabric was a little difficult to true up and cut to size. I don't know if it is me, or if the patterns on most fabrics are printed slightly off, but I found the unicorns were not even close to being perpendicular to the selvedges. I ignored this problem, since I didn't want to waste any of my precious unicorns. The linen-cotton double gauze also likes to shift and unravel much more than quilter's cotton.

The dress came together easily. At one point my bobbin loaded with elastic thread acted up, so I had to sew over one of my smocking rows. I originally started to rip out the row, but the double gauze did not like me removing stitches, and I figured it would be better just to sew over the row than to tear the delicate fabric. I also had to ziz zag the interior seam where the back of the dress comes together twice, as the single row of stitches ripped through the fabric slightly. I think this is a problem with the double gauze fabric and not with the pattern, but I was glad I chose cotton thread to sew with instead of poly as the ripping would have been worse.

For the straps, I made my own folded bias tape. I've tried those bias tape makers, but they always make me swear and I've never been able to figure out how wide my fabric should be to achieve the desired tape width. I use my own bias tape all the time, especially for bag straps and apron ties. While pressing the bottom hem of the sundress, I realized my dressmaker's tape was the perfect width for the straps at 5/8th of an inch. I multiplied this by 4 (the basic formula for making your own folded bias tape), and found I needed to cut my strips 2.5 inches wide. With my iron, I pressed each strip in half to mark a center line with a crease. Then I unfolded the strip and folded each long edge to that center line, pressing in place with my iron. Once both sides were done, I folded the whole strip in half (this is easy since on one side you have your creased line and on the other you have the "line" created by the two edges meeting) and pressed with the iron again. On one end of each strip, I tucked the short edge inside before the last fold for a clean edge. To finish off the strips and close the open side, I topstitched along both long edges 1/8th inch. For bag straps, I'll offen do several lines 1/8 inch apart as this makes the bias tape much sturdier.

Placing the straps evenly and edge stitching the top was a little fiddly, especially since the double gauze does not like to keep a crisp edge. I think next time, I'm going to sew the top hem before I do the smocked rows, then just sew the straps to the inside of the dress which wouldn't look too different. I suppose I could also cut open the stitching in four places, insert the straps, then sew over the line again securing the straps in place. Heather actually has you make the top hem before doing the smocking on her adult version of this sundress, the Mendocino Sundress.

Soon after I finished the dress, Agnes woke up from her nap and started clapping when she saw it laying on my bed. She wore it over to her grandparents' house, and enjoyed showing off her new dress to Papa, Grandmaman, Uncle Josh, and Mu cat. The green colorway was the only color my local fabric store had, but it looks so perfect on Agnes and I'm happy now I didn't end up with the magenta. The only thing this outfit needs is a matching diaper cover, and I think the Ruby's Bloomers pattern from Weekend Sewing will be perfect. Though, I'm going to try it first with other fabric to check the sizing before I use my last precious scant half yard of unicorns.

*I actually started another smocked sundress a few months ago, using a vintage floral tablecloth from my collection. This particular tablecloth has several large holes, so I was happy to repurpose it. Once the smocking was done, I realized this dress was going to be much too long for Agnes's current height. Since I didn't want to lose any of the pattern from the tablecloth, it seemed to be a better idea to set the dress aside until she is older than to trim the fabric down.

Mission: Impossible

My almost-4 year old son's room is, more often than not, a disaster. He has a big open floor space for playing and takes advantage of it. We've successfully resisted accumulating lots of toys over the years, but he loves legos and puzzles so his floor is often carpeted in little plastic cubes and amorphous cardboard shapes. He has shelves and 10 or so labeled bins for all the different types of toys (legos, puzzles, sound, wood, vehicles, etc), but nothing ever seems to get back into its original place. Ely also attends a Montessori preschool and he must put away his work (what they call their activity) before he can get a new work out. Yet somehow, that practice has never translated to home. Ely also loves books, which his Dad and I are thrilled about because we love books too. In fact, we put a moratorium on book buying 4 years ago because we were out of space, and also needed to remove that line item from our budget. For any holiday/special occasion that involves presents, Ely receives books as gifts and he also gets one book every month from Dolly Parton (I love Dolly and love her even more now.) So on top of the lego/puzzle carpet is a usually a secondary layer of books.

In order to combat this mess, I've been meaning to sew (oh for only about 6 months now ) some cloth bags in which to store his puzzles. Puzzles come in their own boxes, but in my house those boxes are usually destroyed then added to the recycling bin. Recently, I saw Betz's tutorial and then saw how Blair used the tutorial to make her daughter some bags for her treasures. Heather Ross also has a pattern for drawstring bags in her new book, Weekend Sewing, but I don't have a copy of the book yet. On Saturday and Sunday, I has some kid-free time and a clean sewing table so I started on my own drawstring bags.

The bags were so simple to make. Even though I'm a slow sewer, I had 5 made by the end of naptime on Sunday. I used the 13X18 inch size from the tutorial for the larger bags, then raided my remnant stash for the smaller bags. Because these were "boy" bags, I was able to finish off some favorite fabric (Alexander Henry's 2-D Zoo) as well as some blue fabric I've never been very fond of. Betz used a serger to contain the inside raw edges of her bags. I don't have a serger, but a zig zag stitch with my Janome's overlock foot made a lovely serged-like edge. That was probably my favorite part of the whole project, because I learned how to do something new with my sewing machine. Or maybe it was the post-naptime clean room, with puzzles contained in pretty drawstring bags and put away in their labeled bin. I couldn't get Ely to use all of the drawstring bags for puzzles. He promptly filled one up with "sleep friends" (aka small stuffed animals), so he could easily take them with him in the car in case his baby sister fell asleep on the way to their grandparents' house.

All Hallows Eve

This morning we all woke up with stomach aches. Too much chocolate for all the trick-or-treaters, and too much wine for the adults giving out the candy.

Ely was a cowboy. My mother-in-law made his costume, and took a blue ribbon at her county fair this summer. I made Ely's trick-or-treat tote bag last year. I was in Old Navy in late October and saw some Halloween bags for $3. They were very cute and very cheap, but were made of plastic and I try hard not to buy any plastic or spend money on items my family doesn't need for survival. I realized I could make him a simple bag, as I'd recently taken a sewing class at the local art school and learned the basic "formula" for a tote bag. I already had black kona cotton and orange and black cotton thread in my stash, so all I needed was 1/2 yard of orange kona cotton which I could purchase for less than $3 and maybe would even be enough for two bags.

Tote bags are simple - basic rectangles and straight sewing, with homemade bias tape handles. Depending on how you want the bag to look, the handles can be sewn on before assembly, or at the very end. I wanted a simple bag, so I sewed them on before I sewed the exterior to the interior. I added a fun pumpkin applique to the outside, using wonder under and black fabric scraps. I cut out the facial features, ironed them in place, and edgestitched around them to permanently secure them to the bag. I unintentionally used a dull exacto knife to cut out the eyes, nose, and mouth so the pieces have frayed more than I'd like. Black thread for the edge and topstitching finishes off the bag. The best part about making your own bag is that it can be any size. Personally, I don't think young children need a lot of candy, so I made Ely's bag on the smaller side. A smaller bag is also easier for a young child to carry on his own. Agnes didn't need a bag this year, but I'll make her one next year. I'll probably embroider her name on the outside of her, and add Ely's name to his to prevent any confusion.

This tired lion is looking forward to some rest on All Souls' Day, and trick-or-treating with the big kids in 2009.