KCWC Day 3

Second verse, nearly the same as the first. :)


Did I mention that we live in California now? Less than an hour from the beach? And that the average summer temp is in the 80's? Sounds perfect for swimming, no? So, I switched up the shirred dress a bit, and made some swimsuit cover-up/towels. You can't tell this here, but those are made of a nice soft beach towel the girls picked out. That's right, all three from one $5.97 towel. Sweet.

Why did I make these, you ask? Well, remember how I've got three kids, and only two arms? Now I don't have to help everyone hold their towels up when we're done swimming (I'll be adding straps to the tops as soon as I wash and dry them to see how much they actually shirr up). And you better believe I'm making one of these for me, too. As soon as it isn't sewing for kids week. :)

PS. The idea came (again!) from MADE. How am I ever going to come up with clever ideas if she keeps coming up with them for me?

KCWC Day 2

Last one of these, I promise.


Well, maybe. What can I say? The girls and I really like this dress. When Janey saw Breanne's pink dress, she immediately asked "Mom, did you make me one, too?" I hadn't planned on it, but who can say no to this face?


I don't remember when or where I picked up this fabric, but I love it. I've been trying to decide on a project for it for months, but couldn't convince the girls to let me use it on anything, until today, when Janey picked it out of my stash for her dress.




The girls really wanted their pictures taken together--I love how good of friends they are, at least half of the time.


They decided that twirling was an excellent way to show off the dresses. I agreed, mostly because I wanted to show you the difference a circle skirt makes, compared to a generous tube dress. Even though there's a ton of give in the tube dress (the fabric is 45" wide, even though the girls are only 20 inches in the waist), it will never twirl up, because of the cut. Hence the reason I (and all of my girls) love circle skirts. It was funny, I didn't even say anything about it, and Janey said "Hey, Mom! My dress doesn't come up like Breanne's!" I didn't really expect her to notice, but she certainly did.


Oh well, she still loves it. And so do I. Also, I love this last photo. Everyone twirl! Cailin thought it was awesome. Funny girls.

Another Dress

So have I mentioned that Breanne is growing right up? I love that she's able to do more (she LOVES riding her bike (still with training wheels, but she's getting so much better!), she's reading basic books by herself, sounding out the words, and yesterday she perfectly rolled out all 13 pieces of naan we made--she's always asking how she can help--I need to be better at figuring out how to have her help), and while she can still be incredibly frustrating to me (she is amazingly good at ignoring me, and everything and everyone else around her), I'm trying to figure out better ways to utilize both of our energies. She's a good kid, I just need more patience.



Anyway, not only is she growing up mentally, but also physically. I swear, she has outgrown all of her dresses but two, and one of those is for an upcoming wedding, so she can't wear it yet. So... for KCWC I'm focusing on making her some new skirts (see below), and new dresses. Last week we had a sewing group, and I couldn't help but start early, and whip up another dress, similar to her Easter dress, but a little simpler (mostly).



It's simpler because it's just a basic tube dress, including the skirt, where the Easter dress was a circle skirt (I like the circle skirt look better, but it takes a lot more fabric, and thinking, and patience. And pressing and hemming. So this is better :)), but it is more complex because I made the lined pockets. It was my first attempt at pockets, and (like everything I make) they're not perfect, but I like the little extra they add to the dress.


One thing I'm realizing as I make more of these dresses is that I need to find a better way to keep them up on Breanne. She's getting so tall that the elastic thread gathers over her shoulders aren't tight enough to hold the weight of the dress up very well. I'm constantly having to tell her to pull it up in the front, and the back dips down nearly to her shoulder blades. I'm wondering if using plain elastic in a casing would be better? Or maybe just doing a different kind of sleeve altogether for her? I'm going to keep thinking about it, I'm sure the next dress will be different. :)

Easter Dresses in Action

Alright, back by popular demand are the Easter dresses, in action. You'll notice (this is so funny to me) that Breanne is actually the only one wearing a sash in these pictures--everyone started out with one, but I didn't have enough time to measure and cut and *sew on* anyone's sashes, so they were just tied around them like a belt. Of course this meant they were falling off everywhere, so Janey's and Cailin's ended up in my bag. Breanne was the only one who kept hers on all day. And she was the one who chose the satin ribbon (not as thick or bright a white as the grosgrain, but I ran out... sashes are LONG!). Sigh. :)

I love how the dresses turned out, and I love even more how much the girls liked them. Breanne was begging to wear hers for the two days it was finished before Easter, and couldn't wait to put it on on Sunday. I love reactions like that. :)

And now, for your viewing pleasure, I give you a video clip... so you can see how Cailin pretty much destroyed her dress (not really, it's in the wash and doing fine, but it sure looked bad after this). It was all my fault, really, since she didn't want to come outside and take pictures after church (she desperately needed a nap). I may or may not have told the girls to bribe her with her Easter basket of treats. That girl loves her some treats. Maybe someday I'll be able to just get pictures of them all smiling and happy... but for now, I'll take what I can get (and do it in video so you can see that they're actually happy). :)

Easter Dresses

Now this is why I sew. I love, love LOVE when a project in my head actually comes out looking like I want it to. I'm not sure I've ever made something I like so much. So... one down, two more (partially done) to go!

Close-up of the fabric:

It's hard to see it not in real life, but the shirring caused the embroidered flowers to gather up as tight little puffy flowers... love:

There is some debate about whether or not to add the ribbon (Breanne doesn't really want it), but I think it looks better with it. What do you think?

To give credit where credit is due--I based this dress off of images of Made's Summer Vacation Dress, with a lot of help on the sleeves from my wonderful friend e. over at pinksuedeshoe (this is almost the same as her Turtle Dress). I love the look of the shirred bodice, and it's so easy to do! I changed it up from both of those, though, with my own addition of a circle skirt. I love me some circle skirts. Minus the hem, but that's a different story. :)