a Nutcracker dress

Kate and I are going to see the Nutcracker over Christmas break, so of course she needed a sparkly dress to wear. I know her flower girl dress is going to be navy blue & sparkly, so I wanted to try out sewing something similar and a holiday dress seemed like a good excuse. I found some blue rayon/silk satin with a bit of sun fading on it in the outlet at Parons, and some blue beaded trim at Joyce Trimming on W 38th. The dress is lined in ambiance, and the lining actually has a bit of cranberry lace for the hem. The satin was really wonderful to sew. It didn't curl too much, and pin holes disappeared after ironing.

It was hard to photograph, so here are two pictures.






It's hard to see, but there are sequins sewn into little 3D roses on the trim. I hand sewed this on just above the empire waist seam using some navy blue thread. There's not actually a dip in the trim or waist seam, it just was hanging a bit weird when I took this picture.



This is the same BWOF dress pattern that I used for her birthday dress, but I cut the neckline higher so that I don't need to add some lace to bring it up. Here's her birthday dress:



And finally, the PJ factory is whipping up dolly PJs and quilts as well! Here is molly, modeling a pair of christmas PJs for an american girl doll. I made a few little pairs of flannel PJs for the girls' baby dolls and then teensy doll quilts with the extras.

lacy birthday dress

Shhh, it's not her birthday yet, but here's Kate trying on her unfinished dress. She spied it in my sewing room and wanted to test drive it- and she was very good about putting it back away when she had tried it on so that it can be wrapped up for the party! She looks very serious, but she was busy "being a model" for these photos. ;-)

The lace insert hand sewn in place to the neck:


You can see the bright blue lining in the sleeve:


A full shot:


I put an invisible zipper into the back, but in these photos it was just hand basted in place. I've sewn it in now, and finished sewing the last inch of the fabric to the lining at the neck, trapping the top of the zipper in that seam. I find it easiest to leave that inch open and finish it up after the zipper is in. The lining is then slip stitched to the zipper tape down the back on the inside.

And here is the owl dress. I'm wearing a BWOF top from the November 2008 issue- one of my favorite shirts now.


I looked through my drawers here and I found two more dresses that I never finished for myself that I will see if I can refashion into dresses for Kate. It hasn't been too much work yet to rip out the old zippers and take off the bodices, so it's nice to see the skirts at least get a new life!

rainy morning

It was pouring at 8 AM this morning in Seattle, which is pretty much the normal state of affairs in March. I took a nice stroll down to pike place market to get a real latte. Not a foamy mess that people call a latte in NYC (explain to me how manhattan, pretty much the capital of the universe, can't make a decent coffee. I don't get it), but a really nice, fantastic, well steamed 8 ounce cup of bliss, from Le Panier in the market. I picked up one of their croissants for later, as well. Then I walked through the market- still setting up- and come upon this guy at one of the fish stands:





He says "Hi! I'm a monkfish" above him. After that, I swung by the teensy doughnut stand for some just-made-right-in-front-of-you mini doughnuts, six for $2. Mmmm.... bursting hot, and crispy, and exactly what you need to withstand the rain and wind and chill. The magazine stand at the edge of the market had a copy of the march BWOF, so I picked it up, and then walked back to my hotel. Fantastic morning, and it felt just like home.

I brought out my BWOF 02-2009-129 top that I'd made recently. I should get a better photo when I'm not wearing it to show how I did the edges. Instead of shirring, I used some FOE that has an organza ruffle sewn onto it on the edge. I found it at Daytona, and they had a ton of colors available.





And... what trip to Seattle can go by without a trip to Nordstrom Rack? I found a wonderful pair of coach maryjanes. They're almost exactly identical to the black Naturalizer maryjanes I wore out here, but hey- different color! I'm pretty much a sucker for any kind of low heeled maryjane shoe. They're a dark chestnut color, even though they look a bit black in the photo.