Halley's Plan B Dress

Halley's dress was not what I intended to make.  It was supposed to have a yoke across the neck and ties on one side, but I just could not get it to lay flat, so I ended up ripping it apart and going to Plan B!  It still has the big bow on one shoulder like she wanted, so it works. 

I also found a way to incorporate some extra white into the dress so that it would coordinate with her sisters' dresses. 

Here is a little tutorial of how I saved the day made it...

(Everything has a 3/8" seam allowance.)

I started with the main dress piece that I salvaged from the first idea- here are the top measurements (my daughter is a size 8).

It is cut in an a-line shape to be 24" high and 24" wide at the bottom.  You will need to cut two of the main fabric and two of the lining.  I already had the sides sewed together since I messed up Plan A, but you can do this before or after you sew the bands on the top... whatever.

To incorporate more white, I cut top bands 2" by 7" - you need four of them.

The shoulder strap is made from a yellow piece 4 3/4" by 9" - sew long sides together, flip, press, and topstitch edges.

To make the ties for the CUTE bow on the other shoulder, take strips measuring 4 3/4" wide by 28" long, fold in half lengthwise, sew, flip, and topstitch the edges.  I sewed across the bottoms of mine on an angle instead of straight across cause the "pointiness" just looked better for this style.

I gathered the tops and pinned a band to each one.

Sew the band on and then turn the lining inside out.  Stick the outside into the lining and put the right sides together like this...

Pin all the way around the top, lining everything up...

Sew in place.  If you flip it, now it should look like this...

But, wait!  We need the straps!  You probably could have put some of them in before sewing, but I figured it was enough to worry about getting everything lined up.  So, turned it inside out and seam ripped a little to put the strap and a tie in like so...

I tried the dress on her first to get the angles- you can do that or just estimate from this picture.
For the back side, I did the tie the same way, but the strap I just inserted from the right side.

Then I topstitched the back to hold it in place. (Don't look too close!  My totpstitching stinks!)

I added a ruffle at the bottom, too, for more length and more white to match the other dresses.  It is just a strip 6 inches by about 90 inches pressed in half, gathered, sewed on, and topstitched.  Kinda basic, but if you have any questions, let me know!

So, that is it!  Plan B Dress in a fraction of the time I struggled with the first idea.

I also used some scraps to make her a cute, rolled rosette fabric headband.  You can find tutorials on those everywhere... just do a search for it.

I hope this one is a lot more clear than yesterday's Bubble Dress Tutorial.  It is a totally different style. Just like my girls.
Well, that wraps up my Easter dress posts for this year... four dresses, four colors, four styles, four sweet girls!  Thanks so much for letting me show all of them off a bit! =)

Isabelle's Bubble Dress Tutorial

As promised, I am showing you all how I made Isabelle's Easter dress.  I talked her into a bubble dress, but she chose the high bodice style with a highish waist and wide sash part herself.

And she picked the buttons out, too.

(Yes, it is missing one- I forgot the buttons when I used Mom's machine to make the holes and didn't listen to her when she said she thought the pack only had three buttons.  I'll add another one later.)

As soon as she saw the bubble skirt finished, she got so excited that I didn't even have to give her the bribe I had promised her to let me make it!

It was a lot of work, but I was really happy with the finished result.

I thought I would try to put together a tutorial of how I made this dress.  It was not super easy, so this isn't a beginner project.  In advance, I apologize if my pictures are not all that great-  I was sewing whenever I could get a spare minute over several days.  This is also long, and picture heavy, consider yourself warned...

As it says on the pattern pieces, for the front bodice cut one out of the main fabric and one out of the lining on the fold, and for the back cut two each out of the main fabric and the lining.

The raw edge is against the bottom, just to be clear.  You could topstitch the top of the band here if you wanted to.  I didn't feel like it.

I used a slightly different technique to make my ties, but this is how I should have done it (hence, no pictures of that step).

(Sew the right sides together at the sides- just to clarify.)

Now, moving on to the skirt...

This is a little tricky because obviously the slit does not want to open up straight... just do your best to make it work!

This crease will make it fold over and overlap flat like it is supposed to.  If it does not look perfect below this piece, it is not a really big deal because the skirt is so full and bubbly that you will not notice.

Now, let's make it bubble!  I was making this up as I went along.  You could cut the skirt out in three pieces (two for the back and one for the front), but I didn't think that far ahead. 

This is where I realized that it would probably have been better to cut the back in two pieces and make an extra seam, but it really doesn't matter.  Whatever...

TA DA!!! You are done!

She insisted on posing this way holding a tiny flower...

If anything is unclear, please let me know so that I can fix it!  Thanks!!!

One more quick shout-out to Jess at craftinessisnotoptional for this cute felt flower tutorial found HERE.  I used extra felt, so it is extra big, but I love how this turned out!

 One more dress left to show you!

Reversible Ruffle Apron

Men's Shirt to Girls' Dress

Elastic Sleeve Peasant Dress

Puffy Petal Flowers

Lydia's Easter Dress

I was running out of time, so I again went over to craftinessisnotoptional for a quick rescue!  I used the tutorial she had just posted for the dress that she made her daughter for Easter (You can find it by clicking HERE!). 

I was going to make it sleeveless, but I gave up and just followed her directions.  I found that it was a little tricky under the arms,  but overall it went together pretty well.  And Lydia loves the sleeves!  She wanted to make sure she took her coat off when she wore the dress again at the doctor's office so that they could see her sleeves. =)

The night before Easter, I was unable to sleep after fixing button holes (I tried to do them on Mom's new machine since mine doesn't have an automatic feature and forgot to take the buttons- they were all too small). 

So, I was perusing around my pinterest board for hair accessory ideas and got sucked back into Jess's blog again.  I made these cute little felt flower clips to match (tutorial HERE).  The only difference was that I had to cut my own flowers out by hand.

So, thanks, Jess, for the big time save! =) 

This is her new picture smile.

She has no problem posing for pictures for me!

The spin-around model pic...

 So, tomorrow, I will (hopefully) be posting my own (before I ran out of time) tutorial for this cute bubble dress!

Grace's First Easter Dress

Those Easter dresses were so much work that I am showing each one off in its own separate post and telling you all how I made them, hopefully getting some tutorials out on my original designs by the end of the week.  So, here we go- youngest to oldest...

For Grace, I made a simple sundress and a ruffle-butt diaper cover. 

I was crunched for time, so for the dress, I used a tutorial that I found over on Jess's blog, craftinessisnotoptional (so many great tutorials over there!!!)  You can see the tutorial HERE.  I did make a few changes, though.  I added an eyelet lace ruffle at the bottom and piping underneath the bodice.  It was my first time doing piping, so I knew it was a crazy idea for the day before Easter, but I LOVE the way it turned out.  It definitely makes the dress!

 

For the diaper cover I used THIS pattern, but I added ruffles, inspired by THIS tutorial.  I made some changes on the ruffles- the sides were hemmed in on a curve so that it doesn't look weird from the front, the bottom edges were hemmed instead if serged, and I had just enough lace leftover to make the top ruffle using that instead of the white fabric.

The white fabric for the lining and trims in all of the dresses came from a really nice white sheet I got at Target. 
OK... now for the proud-mama-show-off-pictures!!!



(Her finger is fine- she had a check-up that morning and needed a finger prick, but the nurse matched the gauze to her dress!)

little peek at the ruffles

back of the dress

Here is her basket!  I let her pick the colors by crawling to the reed she liked. =

 Pretty cute for her first Easter!!! =)

Backstitching Embroidery Tutorial

About a year and a half ago, I figured out how to do hand embroidery and I have been selling "framed stitcheries" in my etsy shop.  A friend of mine asked me to teach her, so I snapped some pictures of a piece I am working on that will look the the one above when I am all done.  (If you find that my pictures are not phenomenal, I am blaming most of it on the dreary weather.  The rest I blame on rushing through it to get back to a cranky, teething baby.)

Materials:

~embroidery hoop

~fabric

~warm'n'natural batting

~DMC floss

~embroidery needle

Step 1:

I always trace my design by holding my paper and fabric up against a (clean) window so that I can see through the fabric to the design on the paper underneath.  You can also tape them on if it is something more detailed or you can't hold it still.

I use batting underneath my fabric when I can to give it more stability and so that you can't see the threads behind it.  Then I put them together and place it in an embroidery hoop.

For the floss, I separate out 2 strands (it comes in 6 strands twisted together if you but the little 35-cent DMC floss at your local craft store).  Then I just thread it through the needle and knot the end. 

Now you are ready to go!

Step 2:
This one was already started, so ignore the "bel" there. 
Poke your needle up through where you want to start.

Step 3:
To begin... JUST this time... take a regular stitch.

Step 4:
Pull that through all the way and then comes the tricky part.  Poke the needle back up through about the same distance ahead as your first stitch.  You want to keep them as even and as close in size as possible.  There will be a little gap between where you are pulling the thread back up and the first stitch.

Step 5:
Now, put the needle back in at the end of the first stitch you took.EXACTLY at the end of that stitch or else you will have gaps and it won't look as nice.

Step 6:
Pull the thread all the way through, and then come back up again a stitch-width in front of the one you just did.  Just keep going backwards like this, keep the stitches as close in size as you can, and don't leave gaps between your stitches.  Pretty easy once you get the hang of it!

I have also been using this technique to hand embroider Easter basket liners.  I love the way this one turned out (she chose great colors). 

I hope you found this tutorial at least a little helpful.  Now I have to get back to weaving.  Hippity hoppity, Easter's on its way!

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Chicken and Waffles

Chicken and waffles is a very common meal around these parts. I can remember the first time I met someone who was not a "local" and had never had chicken and waffles. I was shocked and horrified! I thought everyone ate chicken and waffles.

It is really just good, homemade waffles topped with cooked chicken and gravy. You can figure out how to make the cooked chicken and gravy on your own, but here is my awesome recipe for homemade waffles (seriously, only the best of my recipes for you guys!):

Waffles

1 cup flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup milk
3 eggs (separated)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Mix the dry ingredients together.  Add milk and egg yolks (beaten).  Stir in oil and vanilla.  In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff.  Fold the egg whites into the batter.  Pour batter onto hot waffle iron and cook until golden brown.

I suppose that you can make these for breakfast as well.  I bet they would be great to freeze and pull out on busy mornings.  Sadly, not too long ago one of my kids said, "You mean you can eat these with syrup?"  Umm... I guess we eat chicken and waffles more than syrup and waffles.  =)

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