Hello again Urbanites. Here is a Saturday "sneak peek" at what I have been working on recently (now that my Janome MC1100 is FINALLY out of the shop- YAY! LOVE my machine.).
This dress is for my soon to be four year old and is meant to be a dress with "room to grow". Unfortunately, I don't have any before and after pics, but the bottom half is easy to visualize as it was EXACTLY as you see it now. It was an old skirt of mine, I think from high school or college, and as I never throw a useful scrap of cloth away...this has been just sitting in my craft closet, waiting for it's debut..
It has a very full skirt, which meets the requirements of the four year old :) and I am not too keen on the route 66 pattern on the skirt, it is a cute and appropriately colorful one for my daughter.
So what is the top made of? The top is an egg shell off-white cotton sleeveless top that once belonged to an older woman who decided to clean out her closet. So not only do I NOT throw fabric away, I also collect it in whatever form it comes.
So I pinned the two pieces together and sized them to my daughter. Whenever I do this, I am really a "just get in there and do it person" rather than a "lets measure and make a pattern" person. My daughter was brave enough to allow me to do all this while she was wearing the dress, and that was the discerning factor in whether or not I could get away with no measuring this time.
But after fitting and then sewing together, there was a new problem. I wanted this to be a dress that had "room to grow", but it was already a little on the tight side- not when it was on, but when it was being pulled on. So because the arm hole on one side was already aligned with the skirts side zipper, I could just open up the sleeve and re-sew it on each side of the zipper. So now the zipper will close up the under arm after dressing and then a bow will be tied at the top.
So, I said that I fitted it to my daughter. How did I do that? Well, I think that one of the perks of sewing adult clothes into children's clothing is that I can cheat and use existing seams and basic shapes. It is kinda like starting out with a short-cut. For this dress I put in a pleat that goes down the back of the top and is continued down through the skirt. Once again, I eyeballed this. First I just pleated it so that it looked appropriate with the shape of the neck line in the back, then when I put it on my daughter I fitted it more to her and to the waist of the skirt. It actually did not require much adjustment.
Here is a close-up of the pleat in the back.
This is how the neck line looks in the front at the moment. That embroidery is part of the original top. I have a piece pinned across to raise up the neck line and afterwards I think that I plan to put in some ruffles down the front from the neck line to the waist band...not decided yet. The embroidery is not so bad, but a small part of it was sewn over resulting in a crooked look that I am not sure that I can live with and taking out the stitching is not an option.
Here is a look at how full the skirt is.
SO, I will have to see how the front on the dress turns out. As soon as that is done, the dress will be complete. :)
