I hope you all had a fantastic Easter weekend. The weather here in Sydney was truly amazing. Even though it is late autumn, the sun was shining and it was warm enough for a swim at Balmoral Beach!
I must confess that my sewing addiction is getting so bad that I looked at the amazing weather outside and decided to spend most of the weekend inside sewing and cleaning. My study got a thorough work over, my ironing is up to date, the bathroom is clean - I feel very virtuous. Of course I had to mess up the place by cutting out the cutest little dress.
I started off by selecting a pattern called Penelope by Olive Ann Designs from my store, then I went through all my fabric (and there is a lot) and decided to use Tanya Whelan's new range called Rosey.
Sunday evening I worked out which size I would make (Size 3) and converted the pattern from yards to meters (FYI I needed 1.5m of the main fabric and 0.7m of the co-ordinating fabric used for the ruffle and bow). I then laid out on the floor and cut out whilst enjoying a couple of glasses of wine.
On Easter Monday, I made up the dress. The pattern does assume an intermediate or advanced sewing knowledge. The bodice is fully lined, the ruffle gathered as is the skirt. If you are also making up this pattern, I recommend sewing 2 lines of gathering stitches (which is the way they taught me when I learned to sew). When you are gathering, you are putting tension evenly across both threads and there is less chance of the thread snapping.
I then tried the buttonhole stitch on my mother's machine. I couldn't work it out so looked up the model on YouTube and watched a video (Don't you love the internet). I found the user manual and read that and half an hour later had the perfect buttonhole. I wish I had worked out that my mom's machine did it automatically - I would have never done another buttonhole on mine!
The most amazing part was that I found I had matching thread and a button. I didn't have to leave the house! I usually have to dash to Lincraft or Spotlight and get so irritated that I can't finish it there and then.
I think it turned out well - don't you? There is a pattern to make a matching dolls dress - I have cut it out of the scraps of fabric and may put together over the weekend.