did you miss me?
Lordy Lordy, it feels like I haven't had time to sit down all summer. First, there was the rush of finishing up the basement and moving everything down, and then we had visitors for most of July, Stuart was out of town for work for a couple days, and last weekend we said good-bye to some long time friends moving to Ohio. In a few days we're driving to Kansas, where we'll spend a week visiting family and going to my cousin's wedding, which I am doing all the music for, not that I've had much time to practice.
Alas, knitting has taken a back seat to everything else going on. I finished the Liesl tunic a long time ago, but I still haven't blocked it. I was hoping to take it along on our trip, but the tunic is so loosely knit I'll need to wear a camisole underneath. Since it's been 100+ degrees for the last 36 days (once as high as 114!) in central Kansas, I'll probably just leave Liesl at home. What a shame! I've also been working on a fall sweater for Anya, and I'm about halfway done but have no pictures. I do need to figure out travel knitting, though. I find it's a good idea to have at least two, if not three, projects along on a long car trip in case I finish/get bored with/screw up one of them.
But enough of my life and excuses for not posting. Let's move on to an actual project, shall we? Last week, after realizing that Anya has grown several inches since last year and no longer fits the one dress she owns, I went shopping to find her something to wear to the wedding. No luck. Everything was too ugly, too fancy, too expensive, or all of the above. So I made her a dress.
She loves it, and this is saying a lot for a child who normally refuses to wear dresses.
She probably loves it because it's yellow.
She also loves it because I made it for her.
The first thing she did when we went outside to take pictures this morning was pick a tomato out of our front garden and start eating it.
I sure hope this dress makes it to next weekend.
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More details, for those interested:
Pattern: McCalls 5838, view B
Fabric: some quilting cotton I got at a sale outlet in Newton, Kansas last fall when I was in town for a performance, and I used pretty much every last bit of 1 and 5/8 yards (partly because I made a mistake cutting out one of the bodice pieces)
Comments: Anya usually wears a size 4 in store-bought clothes, but experience with giant patterns wizened me up to sizing issues - finally - so I looked closely at the listed measurements and decided to make a size 3 from the pattern. Wouldn't you know, it worked! The dress fits her pretty well. There's not really room to grow, but that's okay, because she really needs it for next weekend. (After that, she can wear it and eat as many tomatoes as she wants.) The only sizing problem was that the length was just right when she tried it on before I hemmed it. A regular hem would have made it too short, I didn't have enough fabric left over for a ruffle, so I made an evening trip to Joann's to get that wide eyelet trim for the bottom. It fancies up the dress, which is nice, and I think now the length is about right.
If I'd had more confidence in my sewing abilities, and if I'd had time to look for better fabric, I would have chosen something lighter like a batiste or cotton lawn. This quilting cotton is fine, and it certainly wasn't expensive, but the bodice and midriff sections of the dress are lined, and with the gathers and extra layers, it came out just a little on the stiff side. I'm sure if I'd been using more expensive fabric, I would have had some unsalvageable screw-up, because that's just how it goes, right? As it is, my zipper installation was less than stellar, and I had to improvise a little bit on the straps, so it's good that I had a practice run.
I have a little more confidence now, and I'd like to sew some other things for Anya, hopefully with results as good as or better than this dress!
Alas, knitting has taken a back seat to everything else going on. I finished the Liesl tunic a long time ago, but I still haven't blocked it. I was hoping to take it along on our trip, but the tunic is so loosely knit I'll need to wear a camisole underneath. Since it's been 100+ degrees for the last 36 days (once as high as 114!) in central Kansas, I'll probably just leave Liesl at home. What a shame! I've also been working on a fall sweater for Anya, and I'm about halfway done but have no pictures. I do need to figure out travel knitting, though. I find it's a good idea to have at least two, if not three, projects along on a long car trip in case I finish/get bored with/screw up one of them.
But enough of my life and excuses for not posting. Let's move on to an actual project, shall we? Last week, after realizing that Anya has grown several inches since last year and no longer fits the one dress she owns, I went shopping to find her something to wear to the wedding. No luck. Everything was too ugly, too fancy, too expensive, or all of the above. So I made her a dress.
She loves it, and this is saying a lot for a child who normally refuses to wear dresses.
She probably loves it because it's yellow.
She also loves it because I made it for her.
The first thing she did when we went outside to take pictures this morning was pick a tomato out of our front garden and start eating it.
I sure hope this dress makes it to next weekend.
---------------
More details, for those interested:
Pattern: McCalls 5838, view B
Fabric: some quilting cotton I got at a sale outlet in Newton, Kansas last fall when I was in town for a performance, and I used pretty much every last bit of 1 and 5/8 yards (partly because I made a mistake cutting out one of the bodice pieces)
Comments: Anya usually wears a size 4 in store-bought clothes, but experience with giant patterns wizened me up to sizing issues - finally - so I looked closely at the listed measurements and decided to make a size 3 from the pattern. Wouldn't you know, it worked! The dress fits her pretty well. There's not really room to grow, but that's okay, because she really needs it for next weekend. (After that, she can wear it and eat as many tomatoes as she wants.) The only sizing problem was that the length was just right when she tried it on before I hemmed it. A regular hem would have made it too short, I didn't have enough fabric left over for a ruffle, so I made an evening trip to Joann's to get that wide eyelet trim for the bottom. It fancies up the dress, which is nice, and I think now the length is about right.
If I'd had more confidence in my sewing abilities, and if I'd had time to look for better fabric, I would have chosen something lighter like a batiste or cotton lawn. This quilting cotton is fine, and it certainly wasn't expensive, but the bodice and midriff sections of the dress are lined, and with the gathers and extra layers, it came out just a little on the stiff side. I'm sure if I'd been using more expensive fabric, I would have had some unsalvageable screw-up, because that's just how it goes, right? As it is, my zipper installation was less than stellar, and I had to improvise a little bit on the straps, so it's good that I had a practice run.
I have a little more confidence now, and I'd like to sew some other things for Anya, hopefully with results as good as or better than this dress!
Comments
ann
(I want one just like it)