Atticus' Aurora Dress

My 66th complete project for 2008!

The Orange Creamsicle Dress

My 65^th completed sewing project for 2008!

It is FINALLY done! Yay! I started this dress in April, and it is finally done, 6 months later! I got orange because I thought it would be so nice for spring and summer …. Well I guess it will be nice for fall!

I am pretty pleased, because when I started this dress I had just finished my half marathon and now I am 18 weeks pregnant, and it still fits pretty well. I am just glad that I finally figured out a way to make all parts of the dress work for me.

So this dress does bear resemblance to the pattern, but I made so many changes. I changed the neckline, so it didn’t go quite as deep and was more modest. I added in the connecter triangle piece in the bodice, I widened the shoulder straps, designed my own sleeves for the dress because the dress was sleeveless, and I raised the neckline on the back of the dress as well. Then I changed the shape of the entire skirt. It is supposed to be a straight skirt that is gathered at the hip line, which was very unflattering on me, so I took the skirt off, and made it into an a-line skirt which I thought was much more flattering to me.

Also I did an invisible zipper in this dress and that is the first invisible zipper I have ever done and I loved it! I really love how when the dress is zipped you can’t see the zipper. Anyway I am glad this dress is done, hopefully I will find ways to use this dress a couple of times before I get too pregnant. My baby bump is really started to swell, at least I can tell.

Autumn’s sewing

The pillow that she sewed on the machine on Thursday October 16th

The pillow that Autumn hand-sewed at Grandma's house and finished on this most recent visit

On Thursday we actually didn’t have to rush off to somewhere in the morning, so as soon as I woke up I started looking through my fabric to figure out some of the doll clothes for Prairie for Christmas. Well Autumn came in the sewing room and started asking all of these questions and then started telling me how much she likes to sew. I am very excited about the prospect of Autumn liking to sew, but so far she has only done some very minimal sewing projects with her Grandma, and right at the moment I wasn’t in the right mood to do sewing with Autumn, but she was very persistent that she wanted to sew. She kept asking me what I was doing with the scraps of what I was cutting out. So we got her a box to store her scraps in.

Then I told her we really needed to eat breakfast before we did anything else. Well I called my mom “help! What kind of sewing project do I let a 4 year old do?” Let’s just say my mom is amazing! She talked me through gave me some really good ideas. Well as soon as breakfast was done Autumn was ready to sew again, but I told her we should get ready for story time and after that we could work on it some more. So well after story time we went to the grocery store, and by time we got home I had to rush to make lunch so it would be ready when Ben came home for our family meal of the day. So finally when the girls were both in their rests/naps I had finished cleaning up the kitchen and I made it back to the sewing room.

The room that Autumn takes a rest in is adjacent to the sewing room, so I started yelling, and she yells, don’t start without me, I love sewing. I told her that I can take a break and sew during her rest and when her rest is over (she has a digital clock so she knows) she can come in and we can work on her project. So like 10 minutes later her rest is over and we start her project.

She looks through my box of large scraps and finds some princess fabric leftover from sheets I made her last year and she decides these little squares would be perfect for a pillow for her doll. She does it. She pressed the fabric herself, she pins the pillow herself, and then I make her practice sewing straight lines on the sewing machine and she is struggling with this and gets really frustrated and decides that practicing isn’t any fun. She finally says in exasperation “I feel like I am so stupid at this and that I am not good at sewing!” Well I decided it was time to call Grandma again, and again she was amazing. I have no doubt that my mom is doing the right profession; she is an amazing teacher and works soooo well with children. So even though she had classes going on at her house, my mom took the time to talk to Autumn and give her a really good pep talk, and just explained that her students are usually 7 when they start, so it is going to be a little harder for Autumn, but she can do it. And then told some dirty secrets to Autumn, that when I started sewing when I was a child that I didn’t sew very straight lines, and Autumn thought that was really funny. Anyway Autumn was renewed after talking to Grandma.

So we did one more practice and it was really good, Autumn was so excited she had to call Grandma back and tell her, and Grandma was so excited for her. Then we decided that it was time to actually sew the pillow. So she sewed the pillow, she turned it, I showed her how to push out the corners. She pressed the pillow again, and then she stuffed it herself. She then pinned the opening close, and I asked her if she wanted to sew it on the machine or by hand, and she said by hand. Autumn said “I like sewing by hand it is so fun!” (well maybe she isn’t my daughter , I hate hand sewing). Grandma had taught her really well how to hand sew, so once I threaded the needle and put a knot in it she didn’t need any help, she just went right along, and did a great job.

She was really proud of the project that she finished. I don’t know how my mom teaches classes so many hours a week and doesn’t kill her back. My back was sore from leaning over to help Autumn so much. Autumn was very proud of her pillow and has already been talking about her next sewing projects, I guess I will have to cut down my list of sewing, because it is pretty time consuming to have Autumn sewing, but well worth the skill and confidence she is developing, plus maybe someday my girls will come home to visit and we can all sew in my basement together too.

The Ribbit outfit for a doll

My 63^rd and 64^th completed projects for 2008! (and my first completely finished Christmas sewing project!)

Prairie really likes changing on her baby but it doesn’t have very many outfits. So I am trying to replicate as many of her outfits that she has right now as possible. I am having sooooo much fun sewing doll clothes. I really love being creative with patterns with a doll, because it is so small.

She has this outfit that is a green shirt and matching green pants, and she LOVES it and calls it her ribbit outfit (like after a frog). Well when my mom made the outfit for Autumn two years ago, she pretty much used every piece of fabric to finish it so I knew she didn’t have any scraps leftover, but I realized that I had made a t-shirt a while ago for myself that was about the same color. When I checked the scraps I had it matched close enough, and the pieces that I had left were about the perfect size to make the t-shirt and a pair of pants. I was amazed. I didn’t have to piece anything, and after I was done the scraps were even worth saving to put into a patchwork quilt, so I love when I use stuff up, plus I don’t need to buy anything, I love that.

Anyway I am very excited about this project, and can’t wait to get some more doll clothes done.