Lotus Blossom Coatdress

This girl had a bad day yesterday. Actually, despite the fact that it's been Christmas for the past two months, she's been having a rather bad lately.

I had a long talk with her, and we are going to work on all that a little more hardcore. It seems her sweet spirit doesn't handle the rigors of life (eating dinner! picking up toys! what, I can't whine 24/7?!) so well. Poor thing.

Well, last night I overheard her tell her brother that, "this was my worst day ever."

I felt bad for her, so I made her this dress to wear to school today.

See? I can be a nice Mommy.

Fabric: Glorious Amy Butler Lotus Blossom and Lotus Dots. Oh sigh. I have yards of the pink colorway for this, so I portioned out 2.5 for this dress and left the other 2.5 or so for me. (I plan to make the cover bag from The Queen's new Style Stitches book.)

Pattern: Ottobre Design Magazine 5/2006, #13. This was the first Ottobre magazine I ever purchased, and one of the first Ottobre patterns I ever sewed way back when. I made it up in pink corduroy and slaved, slaved, slaved over the pictured version. This time around I left off the tiered skirt & embellishments, and did my own thing.

I couldn't help but notice how any boutiquey tie-y dress I sew tends to become untied. Not good for when you're sending your daughter off to school every day. She comes back with the oddest hack-job knots to keep her belts/sashes/bows from coming off.

Instead of that misery, I hammered on some of my trusty Snap Source snaps with my size 14 snap press. I wanted to keep the bow look, so I hand sewed a bow over each top snap. Voila! It's faux bows.

I just love this collar. Whew, was it so much less of a headache this time. I think the first time I made this pattern, it was something like three years ago? Well, I have gotten much better at sewing in those three years. Thank God. I hope to improve in the next three, and the next three after that. Practice makes better, it truly does!

Oh! And I also adore my Clover bias tape maker. I have the 1" one. Or maybe it's 7/8"? Anyway, you cut 1 7/8" strips, feed 'em through the little tool, and out comes your bias tape! Since I needed double-fold for this, I then folded it in half again. Great, great little notion.

She was happy about her dress, but you can see the glimmer of World Burden lingering in her eyes. Sigh.

Nevertheless, life in a huge warm pink twirly dress is infinitely better than life in something else.

And just because I found these other pics when I uploaded, here is a shot my husband took of the little stinker who is partly to blame for her Worst Day Ever.

Isn't he awful?

Until next time.

Love, Me.

Bon Voyage Emmaline

I am happy to report that I have successfully been sewing up my gobs of Bon Voyage fabric, just like I said I would. This is cause for celebration, because my sewing plans change constantly, and my whims can easily push a "must do!!" project out 6 months just like *that*.

This time I have made an apron for myself, which I am very proud of. Aprons are one of those utilitarian items that I love to make for other people, but I can just never bring myself to make for me. So this is definitely an accomplishment.

Pattern: Emmaline apron by Sew Liberated. It's lined! Excuse to use up more of this fabric! Annoying if you want to purchase new fabric for it!

Fabric: Bon Voyage fabric by Timeless Treasures. Pink bikes, pink Paris print, brown dots, and brown birds for trim.

I think this pattern would be flattering on lots of girls with, er, *girls* because of the nice bust gathers goin' on. As I don't have much of a chest, it just conceals the area, which is good. So basically, it's good for both the well- and anti-endowed.

Look, Ma! It's reversible! You can see the wind whipping it out a little bit. The skirt section is nice and wide, so it has great coverage and, again, is suitable for all shapes and sizes.

Yay, reversible topstitched goodness!

I accidentally centered the Eiffel Tower on this, go fig. I didn't have enough fabric to be super picky, but as fate would have it, it worked out. I am not one of those super anal matchy-matchy matchers (too impatient and lazy!), but I do try to line things up when I can.

P.S. My bodice is not crooked, but my picture is. Sewing skillz = adequate, photography skillz = suckage w/no patience to learn. C'est la vie!

I still have at least one more project out of this fabric, as well as some scrappy ideas for all the leftover odd bits, so stay tuned!