Cute dresses

I have a friend who is a great crochet-er.  I have never learned so when she asked if we could put our talents together and make some cute dresses, I jumped on it!  She crocheted the tops and let me figure out the skirts.  So far we have four cute ones.

 They are all 6-12 months and would fit a variety of sizes actually.

I'm just trying to figure out how to close the top bodice.  Sew two ribbons on to tie?  Sew a button on to stick through the crocheted top?  What would look the best?  We're saving them for the craft fair after Thanksgiving, but also have them on the etsy shop to share with the world.

Privilege

Sometimes we are lucky enough to use our talents to bless and help other people. I was honored to help a good friend and her family with my sewing talents last week. They had a preemie baby who lived a short 10 days then passed away. She was only 1 pound 1 ounce and born at 27 weeks. One thing my friend did not want to do was shop for a dress for the baby for the funeral. A doll dress would be too big anyway, a Barbie dress would probably be closer to the size, but not wide enough. So I offered to make one. It was a pleasure and a privilege to help them during this trying time.

I took a few doll dress patterns that I have a figured out how it would best fit on a such a little baby with the least amount of disturbance. I decided to not do sleeves and to make it a wrap dress that would fit around her how ever small she was. I put an adjustable velcro closure on the side so when you wrapped it, it could be wrapped tighter if needed. I made it long and with two skirts, two different colors of lace, and several ribbon bows. I think a girl needs a pretty dress no matter how small or for how short of an amount of time! It did not take long to make and I loved how it turned out. I do wish I had made it probably 1/2 the size after I saw the little baby at the funeral because I think it was way too big.

There aren't many options for parents with micro-preemies. After searching online there are several things you can buy for more than 50$ and they will ship the next day. I think it's a great option for a friend to make something because it'll mean more and be one less thing that a grieving parent has to worry about! Thank you friends for giving me the opportunity to give you a gift in your time of need.

Why did I buy a pattern?

So my 13 year old daughter keeps growing, as they tend to do. So she has no church clothes. I made her a skirt awhile back and looked in vain for other dresses. They all have spaghetti straps or are too short these days in the store. So I tackled a dress this week. At the fabric store I told her to look at patterns while I did some other shopping. When I met her at the patterns she had found a really cute dress, but the pattern wasn't on sale. I am not in the market to pay full price for patterns ($16.95!!!). PLEASE don't EVER buy a pattern at full price. I wait for the $0.99 or $1.99 sale and then stock up on any pattern I think is cute. So we looked at the $2.99 "See and Sew" rack. There were parts of several dresses that she liked but not one pattern had everything. She wanted a summer dress but she likes long sleeves and most real summer dresses are sleeveless or spaghetti straps. So she found this pattern and really liked the SASH.
So I was supposed to build a new dress around the sash. Since I had SIX children with me (not recommending shopping at a fabric store with 6 kids), I grabbed the pattern and away we went. When I got home, I realized the pattern only came in size 8-16 women's. Well my daughter is between girls and juniors sizes so she was too small for women's size 8. So I had to figure out how to make this dress with the cool sash and

1. add sleeves
2. change the bodice lining since it has sleeves now to a yoke lining
3. Make the V neck not so deep
4. change it to a smaller size to fit a 13 year old

So after a phone call to my mom who asked "What were you thinking?", I started cutting out the fabric. I cut out a size 8 instead of cutting it out smaller, in case I cut it out too small. The yoke wasn't as hard to figure out as I had thought it would be. I used sleeves from another dress pattern, made the bodice a little shorter, tried it on several times, and hoped for the best. She is thrilled with the outcome and likes the bright, springtime colors, and she especially likes the SASH! I think it's way cuter in person and the pictures make it look a little frumpy, which it isn't.

More than a day skirt

So this should've taken a few hours to make but I ended up putting on the waistband wrong, not once but twice! So I had to pick it out and do it again and again. Then, Haley tried it on and it was too small. She's between a size 14 girls and a misses size 2 or 4 so I was kinda guessing the size anyway. So I picked it out again, made a new waistband and then it was done. So it was a bit of a pain but it was all my mistakes. I'm also not a big fan of hand stitching the entire hem and waistband, but I did it while watching a movie one night. Haley loves it! (and I'm glad it's done).

Keeping Track of the crafts

I thought I'd start this blog as an off-shoot of our family blog to keep track of some of my crafts and sewing projects I'm working on or have completed through the years. I don't claim to be a super seamstress or crafter, but it's something I enjoy when I have time. Looking at some of my past projects, I feel rather inadequate compared to a lot of crafters and seamstress out there but I stopped comparing myself long ago! I do it for the fun and often the necessity of saving money on store bought expensive items! I guess I'll post past projects and then I'll add additional projects that I finish or am working on.

Basket Liners for Dani's baby bedroom.

Hanging baby supplies organizer for Dani's baby bedroom.

Crib skirt for Dani's baby room. Also has some valances for the windows.

American Girl Doll skirt.

American Girl Doll bed (I tried to make it look like one in the catalog that cost $80!) My mom made the little pillow.

Denim BYU blanket. It will have a pair once I get more fabric to finish the back. These will be on the boys beds in their new bedroom.

Baby boy blessing outfit. This was made for my first son 10 years ago out of left over fabric from my wedding dress.

My friend Chrissy helped teach me how to attempt decorating my first real cake. Okay, she did most of it! This is a hobby/craft I'd love to learn more of when I have time someday.

This is a cross stitch I made when my oldest was a baby- 12 years ago. I entered in the county fair this year and got a 2nd place ribbon (I think I won $6.00- more money for my next craft project!)

Christmas Eve pj's 2009. It's a lot of work to make 4 pairs of pj's! I bought Carter's for $3 so I didn't make his. Kids love getting homemade pj's rather than store bought though. THis was a tradition started in my family as a kid.

Caterpillar cupcakes for 1st grader birthday. I think I've made this particular treat for 3 different birthdays because the kids love it.

This is the one and only quilled thing I've made. I took an intro to quilling class and it's another craft/art that I would love to learn, when I have the time.

I think I've made over 30 Halloween costumes over the years. This was for my first son about 7 years ago. Go Cougs.

Coloring wallet. It has pockets inside for paper and crayons.

This is a horrible picture of a table my dad and I made one Thanksgiving holiday. It's my favorite piece of furniture in the house. It is no longer being used to store toilet paper (as seen in the picture) but is in it's rightful place in our entryway of our new house. I would love to build furniture sometime too and I've checked out the website called www.knock-offwood.com and I'm determined to make some stuff from there someday.

Cleopatra Halloween costume. I had a bunch of scrap stretchy fabric that I don't think I would've ever used for anything else so this worked perfectly.

Probably my favorite project is making matching girl and doll outfits. This was a Christmas dress for Haley and her doll several years ago.

This is a dress that I bought the fabric for off of the internet. I hate shopping for fabric on the internet because you can't touch it and see it while choosing. This turned out alright though.

Matching girl and doll dress for Erica.

I didn't make anything in this picture but I did put the leg work into finding the bedding Haley liked, choosing paint and accessories and putting it all together. I even "got" to paint the walls these bright colors. Her room is fun and energetic. My sister Alicia made the wall hanging of Haley's name.

Family Home Evening Chart. I ended up not liking the color I chose and the lettering on top could've been smaller. The empty place was reserved for our last baby who didn't have a name at the time because he wasn' t born yet! (Of course I still haven't made the name and he's almost 6 months old.)

This blurry picture shows one of the 13 pairs of shiny egyptian pants I made for a dance recital a few years ago. Yes- THIRTEEN!!! Nothing compared to the 8 Minnie Mouse costumes or 10 "Purple People Eater" shirts a few years earlier. Not the easiest fabric to sew with.

Easy Easter dress.

Another easy Easter dress.