Second set of winter dresses:
These were little A-line pinafores with buttoned straps.
Now the fabric was bought last year with the intention of
being turned into Christmas dresses. It's taken me this
long to sew them so it is unfortunate that the snowflake
motif is a bit seasonally-wrong for March.
Oh well, better late than never.
Some pictures of the girls wearing them, posing with bits
of colored plastic all over our living room floor.
I've settled into a sort of crude method for making dresses
in S-M-L sizes now. It goes like this:
- Draft pattern for Jenna (middle size) and cut and sew the dress.
- Try dress on Emily (larger size) and use measuring tape to decide how many inches to let out at various points in order to fit her.
- Scribble frantically on whatever paper is handy - newspaper, magazine, own skin.
- Repeat with Kate (smaller size) and use measuring tape to decide how many inches to take in at various points in order to fit her.
- Scribble frantically again.
- Run back to sewing table and trace Jenna's pattern on new piece of paper and make alterations from scribbled notes to make one smaller and one larger pattern.
- Cut out new fabric pieces and sew before I lose steam and begin to crave chocolate muffins.
This method is not as accurate as drafting each
person's pattern from scratch (i.e. beginning with
the basic block and altering it to produce the dress
shape) but it is much faster.
Two down, one more to go.
These are adorable!
ReplyDeleteClever way of drafting for size, I say!
ReplyDeleteCool pinafores, L :) Very pro! I've been wanting to make one for N out of that purple corduroy, but the weather has been so insanely hot and humid here that methinks it would be folly :(
once again, so cute! and I enjoyed your description of the process. I could especially relate to Step 7! : )
ReplyDeleteHi all, thanks for nice comments.
ReplyDeleteJ: you're the one with the pro garments! And the fabulous workmanship. I am thinking I need a dressmaker's dummy soon. Tired of chasing after children for fittings.
K: I'm getting to the weird "I'm a bit bored with the sewing machine" point in my life right now. It's a cycle and I'm not alarmed. Many a wonderful garment has been cast aside when I've run out of steam. I'm rather glad to be done working with corduroy because spring is here (yes it is! I don't care that there is snow on the deck still!) and I just bought a large quantity of knits to make summer dresses. And then now I feel my oil pastels calling to me. Perhaps I'll finally get round to sewing summer dresses in time for Christmas!
Nices dresses!!
ReplyDeleteOoh, can't wait to see what you'll do with the pastels.
ReplyDeleteAnd knits -- there's an area I've feared to tread. And not sure why. Though maybe it's just because I don't have a serger and dread the thought of finishing all those edges on a regular machine...