Baby Girl Easter Dress

What would Easter be without the toke last minute must finish super cute baby girl dress?  Relaxing perhaps?  Even, dare I say it, easy?

I wouldn't know obviously.  The day before (I thought) Easter I decided baby girl absolutely must have a cute little dress made by her mama.  The fact that I scored a bunch of vintage little girls patterns in just about her exact size really sealed the deal though.  I rushed all day Saturday to get this dress done and was on track when I was informed that Easter was actually the following Sunday.  Derp.  So I took my time, hand stitched down the hem and the lining (on the bus on the way to work!), and finished it punctually enough the day before Easter.  Was it worth it?  Not really.  She couldn't crawl effectively and she ruined the entire outfit (and her shoes) trying to eat lots of candy and crawl around on the patio.  Am I a better mother for this?  Doubtful.  Does she care at all about cute little dresses?  No, she'd much rather roam naked and wild and free.

But I can look back on these pictures in a few decades and gush because: soooooo much cuteness!!!  So maybe it was worth it after all...

Glam girl

I took a few different aspects of a couple of different patterns and added some of my own ideas and voila!

A little baby dress with contrast Peter Pan collar and ruffle.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  It might just be the nicest thing I've made to date (in it's own way).  I'm just super impressed with how the ruffle turned out.

How cute are those little feet stickin' out of the bottom?!  Of course we live in Seattle and it is October so I had to make her a little shrug to go with it.  Once again this is a mashup of a couple of patterns combined with my vision.

Why are you doing this to me mommy?

Oh yeah, cuz I'm so frackin' cute!

 

I'm really happy with how the shrug turned out too, so you can probably expect to see another one of these (in pink?) as well as a post of how I did it. 

I should mention that I actually made two of these dresses. The one pictured is in my Etsy shop and the other one is for my baby girl.  The only difference is that her dress has the ruffle and collar the same fabric instead of the contrast.  

They are both reversible though.  I don't know why, since I hardly ever end up using the other side of reversible clothing, but I just love it!  It's like my little secret and it just looks so nice on both sides.

striped baby dresses

It's so cute I'm gonna die!

It kind of matches the diaper cover, but are stripes and gingham allowed to mix?

Big pink buttons.

Tummy time!

I love the bright beachy stripes =)

She's trying to get away!

So cute 

Outside

Inside (just as pretty as the outside!)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/110648998/ruffled-baby-dress-3-month

cute little baby things

and a cute little baby (finally)!  

rae's itty bitty baby dress

latvian baby blanket. fabric side

spring baby headband

another spring baby headband

latvian baby blanket again. knit side

and my two favorite FOs =)

the day of finishing...

I don't know how normal people work but I go through creative cycles.  There are periods where I plan, begin, work on, and finish projects in an orderly manner (more or less).  Then there are times where I can't really focus on anything and I just keep starting new projects, many of which don't necessarily make it to finished objects.  Often it's because I've got a project or two in limbo, their fates as yet undecided.  It weighs heavily on my mind until I get it figured out.

Necessarily following these phases of manic but unfocused energy I need a day (or two) of finishing.  Thankfully, that day was today.

First I finished up slipstitching the bias tape on the bottom of this baby dress.  For some reason last night it was just killing me (I've got the huge puncture mark on my thumb to prove it!) but I suddenly remembered how to sew and just sat down and got it done in a matter of minutes.

It's an(other) Itty Bitty Baby Dress.  The skirt is made from a fat quarter cut in 2 pieces and all the other pieces are from thrifted (or just old) sheets.  I skipped the piping on this one just to save myself some time and grief (I'm looking at you, zipper foot) and I like it, but I do think piping to match the bias tape would look nice.

Then there's the Henry shirt I started way back on Wednesday (I think).  There will be a full post about this shirt.  Believe me, it needs one.  I've been procrastinating about buttons for days, though.  I finally woke up this morning and made a damn decision and sewed some buttons on.  They look fine.

He's crying cuz he hates wearing clothes apparently.  The fish print is a thrifted sheet and the blue print is an old shirt donated by my dad.

I also finished tracing and cutting out the shorts pattern I've been working on for days.  I just haven't been able to dedicate the time to it (and DC has been demanding all my attention lately.  Combine a 3 year old with tissue thin paper draped over a table and the results will not be good).  That and my back has been killing me for obvious reasons.

I also finally wove in the ends on this baby hat from waaay back when so it's ready for baby.  Just in time I expect.  

I also managed to finish knitting these baby legwarmers I started yesterday.  Everything but pompoms, which will just have to wait til tomorrow.

They're quite large as you can see but they're for this winter so that's ok.  Or if she doesn't like them obviously I can wear them as glove/sleeve type things.  This yarn was super cheap at my LYS's annual mother's day sale.  I wish I'd bought it all.  I was skeptical but I love the way it knit up.  It's Encore worsted, btw.  It's white light pink and a brighter pink plied together.

I also got lots of laundry done and bag #1 for the hospital packed =)

Now I'm working on my cotton cardigan and feeling pretty good about my productivity.  There are still a few projects that are in time out.  Two diaper covers (anyone know how big around a 3 month old baby's upper thigh is?  I have two diaper cover patterns and neither says) and another darling ranges top.  Maybe tomorrow...

defeat and victory: small things

Do you ever have one of those days where you just get cocky?  This is why they teach you the word hubris in high school I think...

Last night I walked to the store, took DC to the playground, made a delicious, nutritious dinner everyone enjoyed, and fixed the backed up drain (with liquid plumber, but still, I plumbed, people!).

This morning I finished knitting the Latvian Baby Blanket as well as sewing the neverending baby dress.  I don't know why, but that dress just took so much longer than it should have.

Check out the contrasting patterned piping.  I made that!  It was my first time making and using piping-- of course that's part of what took so damn long.  It isn't cut on the bias though.. I just used a little scrap of fabric and a short piece of acrylic yarn that were lying about.  The piping doesn't go around any corners or curves anyway.

I was determined to finish the dress so I could sew up a pair of shorts for DC.  I had all the pieces cut out and just needed to start sewing.  In one unusually productive morning I managed to get the shorts almost all the way done.  This is the Little Heartbreaker Pants pattern so it's a bit time consuming, what with all the topstitching, edgestitching, understitching, and fancy seam finishes (I used all French seams, of course).

It doesn't look like much does it?  Pictures cannot do justice to the pain, the folly, the hubris =(

What you see here is what it looks like when you sew the back pieces together upside down and then sew them in like that.  Basically what you see here is so many wasted hours (I may be exaggerating, but nonetheless it's heartbreaking no?) and the result of being cocky.  I may or may not rip them out and sew them in correctly, but seriously, they're all French seams!  Is it even worth it?  Sigh...