Ditsy flowers summer dress

The summer is almost over and I still haven't shared my summer creations.
One of them is this summer dress I self-drafted and sewed for my toddler girl two months ago. Since then I've been working on something very time-consuming which hopefully will be ready soon.

I've been dedicating some time for making hair accessories as well (I find that such an enjoyable activity). Sometimes I find it hard to balance the time spent on different sewing and craft activities. I am keen to do so many things, but simply don't have enough time for everything.

Back to the dress. It's a simple dress with a little square neckline decorated with lace trimming. It features a little pleated pocket on the front and button fastening on the back. I aimed for something light and comfortable.

























The fabric I used for the dress is one that I bought from Hobby Craft store. I loved the ditsy floral print and although I had many other fabrics waiting to be sewn, I couldn't resist it. It's quilting cotton and has some stiffness. For a garment for an adult I would definetely go for fine and drapey fabric, but for kids garment I can easily use quilting cotton.

I have decided that my next challenge would be sewing with knits. I have very little experience with them and even have bought a book on that. Having a small collection of knits, I think it's time to put them into use.

A "Frozen" inspired dress

It was shortly before last Christmas when the whole family went to the cinema to watch "Frozen". After good reviews from friends I thought that maybe my son was already old enough to understand the film. I expected my two-year-old daughter to get bored really quickly and twist in her seat most of the time. To my suprise it was my little girl who watched the movie with greater interest, mersmerised by the beautiful animation. It's a girl's kind of movie. Honestly, I don't know a little girl who doesn't love it.

Anyway, my daughter definitely didn't understand the story, but she loved the songs. She was dancing around to them using her little blanket as a cape. So I thought I could sew her a princess dress to wear at home whenever she wanted to feel as a princess.
Initially I didn't plan to be "Frozen" kind of dress, it could be any suitable colour.

But then I came across this beautiful snowflake organza fabric in a local fabric shop. I bought 1 metre polyester fabric and 1 metre snowflake organza. Now I think I should have bought a little bit more to make the skirt with more gathers and maybe have added netting fabric under the skirt for more fullness.

 

 

Ready for a party

The party season is here and we are ready for it. With Christmas, New Year and Eva's birthday and another birthday in line I couldn't resist making something special for her. Here it is - a taffeta dress in a princess style with a full skirt, pleat detail on the front, capped sleeves and full back button fastening.

I used the taffeta fabric and the black lace that I bought in Bulgaria not long ago (I wrote about them in my previous post). The taffeta fabric is amazing. It is 'chameleon' fabric as it changes its colour according  to the light. Just check how different it looks on these two photos.

"cool" purple 

''warm'' purple

I wanted to use the lace in the dress but wasn't sure where to attach it. It took me a week or two to decide what the design to be - the cute detail on the front, sleeveless or not, with zipper or with buttons.

This is the first time I sew a fully lined garment. When I finished the dress I realized that I should have used facings on the back openning. Everytime I finish something I see that I could have done it better. Then I get that right in my next project, but something new comes up.

Instead of making the classic capped sleeves I came up with the idea of these two piece sleeves.

The Buttons. Well, they compliment the dress well, but the downside is that they cost almost as much as the dress fabric itself. I didn't have time to wait for delivery from a webshop and headed to my nearest Hobby Craft store. There wasn't a great choice and I picked these ones. I like them but I think five pounds for 8 buttons is a bit too expensive.

It was fun watching my daughter wearing the dress as she kept playing with the skirt, lifting it and twisting it. Now I plan to sew a black jersey blouse for her to wear underneath.

I made a matching bow hairclip as well

This dress was definitely not a quick sew, but I really enjoy making it.

Thanks for reading and come back again!

Pretty owls summer dress

Hello! Summer is not over yet, so I have taken the opportunity to sew another summer dress for Eva. Dresses have always been my favourite garments to design and sew.

It all started with two fabrics in mind - the pretty owl fabric from "Nested Owls" collection by Addornit (I wrote about it here) and the red mini polka-dot fabric by Sevenberry. I thought they would go well together so I started planning what I could turn them into. They both are 100% cotton and have a little a bit stiffness which is great for adding some volume to a garment.
For a week or so I couldn't decide on the style. I envisaged a little dress, coquette and with an interesting
detail.

For some reason my daughter didn't want to try the dress while still in the making. I would try to persuade her to wear it so I could do some measurements but she wouldn't try. What if she refused to wear the dress once it was all sewn up and ready. It would be a shame to have spent so much time designing, drafting, cutting and sewing something that could never be worn.

Luckily, once the dress was completed, washed and ironed, she willingly let me dress her in it. I was more than happy as believe it or not that little girl could be very stubborn and picky.

To make the dress hang nicely I opted for a decorative finish of the hemline. That was the best I could achieve with my mum's sewing machine (which to put it mildly could be unmanageable at times).

I used snaps to close the side of the dress. They are so practical and easy to sew that I wonder why I haven't used any before. For me one of the most important things to consider when sewing for the kids is the easy wearing of the garment. Because if wearing is complicated, kids quickly get annoyed and they might never want to wear that garment again. I remember when a few years ago my boy couldn't take one of his jumpers off and got panicked so I had to cut through it. After that for a period of time, he was scared everytime he was wearing something through his head.

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?

"Ocean Blue" dress

I can finally show you the dress I have been making for my seven-year-old niece. It's ready and on its way to its future owner. Now I am so curious to find how the dress fits her. I wouldn't be surprised if it is a bit large for her, but I was so concerned not to be too small, that I prefered to be on the safe side and make it larger.
For the dress I chose deep blue fabric, which I found very easy to work with. It is a good weight for a dress and drapes well. When I bought the fabric last summer I was told that it was cotton, but it looks to me more like polycotton.
This dress is one of those projects which I wasn't sure how they would end up looking. I didn't have much time to make the dress, so I decided to construct the bodices, the skirt and the sleeves and once the dress was ready to choose a decorative detail. I wanted to add a decorative detail because the dress would be made with single coloured fabric and that was a way to make it look more interesting.

I had a few options on my mind. The first option was to make a big fabric flower for the front bodice, the second option was to add some pleats on the front and the third option was to add either trimming or applique to the skirt. As you can see I chose the pleates in the end.

I opted for a back opening in order to make the dress easier to put on and also to add more effect.
You have probably noticed that all the buttons are different and the reason  is that I didn't have four buttons of this size that were the same. I actually like the look of them on the back.

The first dress I sew...years ago

Has it happened to you to dig in a pile of old clothes and come across some garments that you have totally forgotten you possessed.
That's what happened to me yesterday. I came across that long forgotten dress of mine.

 

It was the first dress I sew. I can't remember how long ago it was, but I estimated it was 9-10 years ago. That's when I bought my first sewing machine and was so happy. I sew a few dresses and then made quite a long pause of few years. During this time I kept buying Burda magazines, but didn't actually get down to sewing. I was just taking the pleasure of looking at the designs and dreaming about sewing some of them.
I still question myself what made me so busy then that I couldn't find time for sewing. And I still can't answer it.

 

I made that dress using Burda pattern. The fabric and the trimming were purchased from a fabric shop in Cricklewood. That was the only fabric shop I knew. At that time I still hadn't heard of Goldhawk road as a destination for buying fabrics.
I remember that at the time of the purchase I wasn't sure how much fabric was needed for a dress, so to be on the safe side I bought three metres. So I must still have some of this fabric left somewhere.
I also remember that when I finished the dress, I was quite happy with the result given that this was my first dress. Ironically I have worn the dress only 2-3 times. I think I find more pleasure and excitement in the process of creating a garment than in wearing it.

 

When I came across the dress, my first thought was "Here is what I am going to wear this summer", but unfortunately after trying it, it turned out it was so tight that I couldn't imagine spending even half a day in it. For my big regret, it will have to continue sitting nicely folded in the pile of old summer clothes.