I’m here!

Wow, my first blog entry. Where do I begin?

If you’re interested in finding out a bit about who I am and what I’m doing here, take a gander at my About Me page. That’s a start. Basically, on this lovely new blog I intend to share my ups and downs in my little sewing bubble. If you are new to sewing, this should be comforting for you to read as I’m sure to share more downs than ups!!

Right, I think I will start by sharing with you my most recent sews; two sweet dresses I ‘knocked up’ for my daughters. My first little girl has just turned five and my second is 14 months, and this is my first real go at making clothes for them. Actually, I did make a cute ruffle skirt for my eldest a year or so ago… maybe I will share that with you later.

I have to say, I’m quite proud of these dresses. I was actually making it for my toddler but it turned out far too big; in fact it fit my five-year-old… she was chuffed to bits. So, naturally, I had to make another, much smaller one to match! And they are so cute, I hope you agree. What’s more, they were surprisingly easy to make! I used a pattern that a lovely friend loaned me, and although it was a bit fiddly at first, the only slightly major error I recall is stitching the front bodice parts right to wrong sides when they should have been right sides together. I discovered this after trimming the seams, clipping the curves, turning right side out and pressing… whoops. Lesson learned though – I didn’t do it again! Of course the other error was the finished dress being two sizes too big… but let’s just say that was meant to be…

The pattern I used was New Look (Baby) 6178. If you can get your hands on it I would recommend it! I followed pattern D; I like the bows on the straps! It looked quite simple. I chose not to add the pockets though… they confused me! And I thought, why does my 14-month-old need pockets anyway? It made my life easier; they just looked like too much of a faff.

 

 

I had a bit of a panic when I realised I had to do buttonholes. I’ve had my sewing machine for around 6 years and still hadn’t figured out how to use the fancy automatic buttonhole maker. I knew it would be simple, but it’s the simplest things I seem to find most difficult… So I consulted my machine’s manual and got started practising buttonholes on scrap fabric. It took a few goes to get the stitches at the right setting but now I know what to do! Hooray!! So I picked up my almost-finished dress and dove in. And would you believe it, they came out alright! (They are meant to be slanted, by the way!!) The ripping through the middle is what scares me, as there really is no going back after that – but, phew, it was all OK 🙂

I think the best thing about these dresses is probably the fact that they were practically free. The fabric I used was an old duvet cover – please tell me; would it look like they’re wearing bedding?! The only extra things were the cotton thread and buttons, which cost pence. Thrifty fashion or what?

So there you have it, my first show-off blog post.

I will be up at night making more dresses for my little princesses in time for summer – so watch this space!