Must Have Big Twirl

So Elsie has a closet full of dresses that do not make her happy to wear. Not because they are not pretty but because they do not twirl big enough. A super-twirling froggy dress by Mamma-Made had set the bar 2 years ago and she just can't seem to go back.

The other day I made this dress out of some scrap material I had upstairs. It's the first time I made a garment without following an official pattern, so it was kind of an experiment. The bodice was from a size 5 pattern I have, and it turned out to be way too big all over, but she doesn't care. I made the circle skirt by just figuring it out, and the bow was because she likes bows. It turned out okay but I really need help with zippers. Look at the way it puckers at the bottom. I can never seem to get them nice and flat.

Serge of Joy

Ha ha. Check this out. My wonderful sister-in-law gave me a new friend for my sewing machine the other day! Yahoo! A neat thing is that the morning of the day she asked me if I wanted it, I had prayed that God would show me in some tangible way that he saw me and loved me. Then Cecilia offers me a serger, when she didn't even know that I really wanted one and had begun to look around for one. I didn't even know she had one. Cool, huh?

So today I learned to thread it and adjust the tension and yippee, I serged! Thanks God!

Elsie's First Sewing Project

This is my 4 year old daughter Elsie with her first sewing project, a my little pony embroidery on a pillow. I traced the picture from a coloring book onto the fabric, and she did all the embroidery (and the stuffing). She is very proud of it. She said it's the softest pillow she's ever had. Now she is ready to move on to something else.

New Projects

These are being printed at Spoonflower on one yard of fabric. Then I'll cut them out and sew them together, then I'll get some photos taken of a cute little 3 year old girl in them (anybody know one of those?) and eventually I'm planning to sell them as ready made sewing kits through Mamma Made Designs. Rachel has already done some really fun stuff with this. Check out her green tent dress and elephant dress. This is so much fun. I could do this all day long.

Installment 2: Taking a stab at some girls' dress designs

Installment 1: Taking a stab at some girls' dress designs