An easy summer dress

Time to blog my next project - a summer dress for Eva.

She already has so many summer clothes but that didn't stop me from making another one. What better than a light and comfortable dress that allows enough ease for running and jumping on the hot summer days. And you know, a girl could never have too many dresses!

In fact I sewed the dress a few weeks ago, but just couldn't sit down and blog it.
It is a very simple dress with two asymetric pleats on the front which meet just at the neckline. For this dress I actually drew a simple A-line dress with no pleats. Then I made two asymetric pleats on a piece of the chosen fabric (the piece had to be big enough to cut the front piece from it). I placed the front pattern onto the pleated fabric, adjusting it a bit and cut out the front piece.

 The fabric I have used is pure cotton from "Dainty Blossoms" collection by Carina Gardner for Riley Blake. It is the same print but in different colour which I used for this summer hat.

I even made a button loop on the back of the dress, using this tutorial from Oliver + S.

 If I had to give this dress a name that had to be "Lara" dress :) I like having some music on when I sew and while making this dress I was hooked on Lara Fabian' songs. Listening to some music and sewing - my perfect spending of leisure time! What is yours?

Another summer hat

Wow!  A few weeks since my last post here... Time has been flying...
The last few weeks I have been taking it slowly and spending less time in front of the computer. That doesn't mean that I have given myself a break from sewing. I just didn't have the opportunity to photograph my recent creations. By the way I have been fascinated by the beautiful and quality photographs of some other bloggers.

One of the latest things I made was something for my mum's birthday, but more on this in a future post.

Another thing I made was a summer hat for my daughter.

 Yes, another sunhat!

 If you have seen the previous two sunhats I had sewn (one for my boy and one for my girl), you have probably started thinking that I am addicted to sewing hats. Well, I am not. And although I have already made three of them I can say they just don't bring me that excitement as the one I get with creating garments. I was just trying to be practical and sew things that were needed.

The blue hat has been much worn so I decided to make another one in pink to go with her swimsuits and some of her clothes.
For the making I used a cotton fabric from "Dainty Blossoms" collection by Carina Gardner for Riley Blake. I didn't want to make exactly the same style as the first one. I wished to try something new.
The pink hat featured a wide brim like the blue one, but this time the crown of the hat consisted of several triangle pieces joined together.
To draw the pattern I used an old favourite summer hat of mine which my mum had kept over the years.

My old little summer hat

 I liked how the new hat turned out in terms of shape and execution, but was disappointed to see that it was bigger for my girl's head. And the annoying thing was that I actually started making it right but somehow got concerned it would be too tight on the head and added another little triangle to the crown, which I regret now. One or two more years before she could wear it....What a pity!

"Tiny flowers" summer tunic

I love summer clothes. They are more comfortable and also easier to make. I could't wait for the weather to start warming up so I could begin to plan out some new additions to the summer wardrobe of my little girl (and  if I get the chance for me as well).
As we are heading to a warmer place for the Easter holidays I thought I would make a short-sleeved blouse/tunic for Eva.
It all started with this..

and ended like this..

I used two of the fabrics I had bought on my recent trip to Goldhawk road fabric shops. They were pure cotton and very easy to work with. Despite that, the whole project took longer than I thought as folding all the little pleats evenly turned out a fiddly job.
The other task that usually delays my work is handstitching the hems prior to machine stitching. It's time consuming, but it makes machine stitching much easier and straightforward afterwards.
Not long ago a friend of mine mentioned to me that she was watching The Great British Sewing Bee on BBC2 every week. The series followed ten amateur sewers who faced different challenges every week. Shte thought it might be interesting for me to watch. And indeed it was, but it made me realize again just how slow I tackled my sewing projects, which made me feel a bit cringeful. I really have to try to be more organized and concentrated.

And this time I couldn't do without a flower accessory. Initially I planned a hairband with a flower, but once the blouse was finished I thought it might work better if placed on it.
It could go either here

or here

Which look do you prefer? I will attach the flower permanently as repinning it might damage the fabric.

And again the most difficult part were my attempts to take photo of my little daughter wearing the blouse. After half an hour chasing her around the room with the camera and telling my boy for a hundredth time to stay out of camera's view (I didn't want his blue pyjamas showing in the background of the photo) I ended up with an empty battery and lots of blurred pictures.

"Pretty flowers" footmuff/blanket for the buggy

When my little girl was three months old and the spring was knocking on the door I decided to make her a kind of springtime footmuff for the buggy. It was not thick and warm like the winter ones but it was great for a warmer weather. I thought that if I used a blanket it would probably land on the ground every two minutes and by the end of the walk it would be all dirty. So I decided to make one that couldn't be kicked and thrown out of the buggy. So this was the result.

It is so easy to sew and decorate something for a girl - just add a few random flowers or butterflies and it already looks pretty. With boys, it's a different story. You have to come up with something else like cars, trains, ships, pirates and etc. In my case I had to draw a helicopter for one project and a dinosaur for another. I will write about them in my next posts. For me personally sewing for a girl leaves me with more ideas than sewing for a boy.

And talking about girlish things, let me show you a photo, I took a few days ago in a shop (I had to do it secretly because I wasn't sure the staff would be happy with that).

It is a vintage-looking car with flowers. It looks so girlish and sweet. I think that would make a great applique on a girl's top. If I manage to draw it nicely, of course. I am putting this on my ever growing "To-do" list. There are so many things I wish to do and such a lack of time.
I like to snap things with the camera while wandering through the streets with the buggy. I usually snap things that I would like to try to make or somehow reproduce in my projects. But not always. Sometimes I just take photos of things that I would definitely not make but which inspire me somehow.
And by the way, looking at that car now I find it more and more attractive. I start wondering if i should go and buy it. It would make a nice addition to my kid's bedroom.At 20 € it's not very cheap. I still got some time to think.