Sew Many Dresses!

Last week I was nesting REALLY bad to the point that I was not resting well at all.  It was such a weird feeling, I could NOT sit on the couch - I just had to get up and clean.  I can't explain it.  But nesting is real and crazy and it's a problem when you're supposed to be resting!  So in the midst of all that non-resting, I was spotting for a few days in a row and once I finally was able to start resting again it stopped.  Whew!  (Is spotting TMI?  Maybe?  Sorry.)  

Well anyway I decided to start sewing instead because at least I'd be sitting, right??    So on Monday my awesome friend Brenda took me to the fabric store and I got some fun things to get started with!  I had pre-selected these two projects... 

(thank you to Brielle for suggesting the super cute t-shirt skirts!)

Tshirt Skirt

http://deliacreates.blogspot.com/2012/02/nesting-easy-baby-skirts.html

Dress

http://www.sew-much-ado.com/2012/01/infant-peasant-dress-free-pattern-and.html

The first one is supposed to be skirts made from shirts, but I don't have any shirts I want to cut up...so I decided to just get knit fabrics instead.  I got these three fabrics for skirts:

 The skirt project went... not well.  The instructions are super funky and I need to spend more time deciphering it before diving in since I'm not using shirts like it's suggesting.  So I moved on to the dresses.  (but I will be back to skirts eventually!)
These are the two fabrics I got for dresses:

 Here is another shot of the purple ruffle fabric without the flash so you can see the ruffles better.  How cute is that?!  I hope the dress turns out because it will be so dang cute if it does!

I also got fabric to make a blessing dress!  I got a shiny white fabric for structure and some organza for an overlay.  The first picture shows the fabrics separately and the second shows the organza laid over the shiny fabric. I can't tell you how long I debated about whether or not I should just do the pretty shiny white on it's own, but in the end I decided the organza overlay gave it a softer look.

So I do not like to stop things when I'm halfway through.  I like things to be done thoroughly and immediately.  Seriously - I read nearly all books within a day or two, in school I wrote papers in one sitting nearly ever time, I don't even leave food on my plate, ... I like things to be completed right away and very thoroughly.  Which is why I shouldn't have projects like this in my life... :)   Totally did two dresses in two days and my body is PAYING for it!  But it was worth it.  

True to form, as soon as I got home from the fabric store on Monday I started measuring my pattern pieces, and next thing I know I'm fully involved in my first dress.  And since now you know how I am with things like that, you know that once the fabric was cut out, there was no turning back.  :)

I was plugging along, following the pattern carefully and taking my time to make sure I did it right, ...and then I started to feel like a rock star right about when I folded part of the dress right side out and I saw I'd created THIS:

My first sleeve!  It was so cool!  

And within a few hours I finished the whole dress!

 I used rick rack for the hem according to the tutorial and it turned out really cute I think!  I was nervous about it looking tacky, but I like it!

 

 I was so happy with how it all turned out!  It has been a long time since I sewed so I was nervous that maybe my skills would be super rusty.  Luckily working a sewing machine is like riding a bike and I picked it right back up again!  :)
A little story... I got my sewing machine as a gift from my mother-in-law for Christmas in 2010.  I'd asked for one because we had started fertility treatments right around that time and I was thinking a baby would be on the way soon and I'd want to make lots of baby things!  Plus I was working with cub scouts and was always finding a need for a sewing machine for different projects, or patches or whatever else.  So I got the sewing machine!  Yay!  Aaaaand then we moved and we weren't in scouts anymore and we didn't get pregnant and ... yah so although I've had my machine for nearly two years... this is the first project I've completed on it!!  Aside from small things like hems or whatever.  So it's finally being put to very good use and I'm LOVING it!  It works great and comes with everything I need :)  And I think this is a pretty great "maiden voyage" for the sewing machine.  Not a bad first project!

And I have to add this... I don't get to impress Aaron very often because he's such a smarty pants, but he was really impressed by this dress!!!  He kept commenting on how straight all the stitches were and how everything looked so well done... it felt really good!  I think it was weird for him to watch me do something that he knows he definitely can't do.  Now he knows how I feel when he's coding, haha  :)  I have a pretty excellent husband, if I do say so myself.  ;)

So that was all Monday.  

Then on Tuesday I made the baby a blessing dress!!  I used the same pattern but I changed a lot of things on it.  Some slight adjustments on the top, made it a lot longer and invented my own hem.  And since I was doing the organza over the shiny white fabric there was an additional element to it.  I actually just sewed the organza pattern pieces to the white fabric before I did anything else and then I was able to use it as one piece the rest of the time (except I didn't sew the hemline until the end) which made it a lot easier.  I took a few photos while I was creating my hem so if anyone is interested I could post how I did it, but there's nothing professional about it, I was totally making it up - but it WORKED! :)

 Luckily I worked at David's Bridal a few years ago and I spent a few months in the alterations department.  So my experiences there really helped me in dealing with the organza which can be a tricky material.  I sewed slowly to avoid any snags, but still got a few.  I was able to adjust it and them steam them out, which is a trick I learned at David's Bridal.  Always nice when past experiences help you out!

I made this little rosette with some extra white fabric because I was toying with the idea of adding embellishments to the dress, but I don't think I'm going to now that I see the final product.  I love the beautiful simplicity of what I ended up with.  I don't prefer roses anyway, I like more open flowers like lilies.  I told Aaron I wanted to keep it simple so that it would be easier for him to hold her in front of everyone.  I've watched a lot of dads get their hands stuck in various ribbons and whatnot so I don't want that to happen to Aaron.  He's pretty relieved about that and is glad it's a simple dress!  We both love how it turned out!   I think if the dress is paired with a pretty headband she'll look plenty dressed up.  Maybe I can figure out how to make a cute headband with the leftover fabric??  Hmm... I'm open to ideas!  Headbands are not my thing, so if anyone has suggestions I'd love to hear them!

 

Here's the whole dress...

I can't believe I made this!!!  :)

I have so much extra white fabric that I think I'm going to make a tiny little "ragtie" blanket or whatever they're called.  Like a 10x10 square with the corners tied.  It's just such a soft material that I could see a baby LOVING to hold that.  So we'll see how that goes.  I still need to master those skirts and make the purple ruffle dress.  

But I really need to take a sewing break for the next two days because I was nearly in tears by the end of today with how much pain I was in from sitting at the machine so long (you can kind of see me wincing in the photo unfortunately, oh well!).  I took tons of breaks but it was still stupid of me to do for so long.  I should probably learn how to not do projects all at once!  Pretty sure I'm going to lay down for the next WEEK just to start recovering.  

But even though I can barely move - it feels so worth it!  :)  I love my little dresses!  And I still can't believe that hem worked out!  :)

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(see? another example of project binging!  I am EXHAUSTED but I can't leave my blog entry unfinished or unpolished...thank goodness it's done - I'm going to bed!)  :)