Open A New Window

The world of sewing little girls’ clothes has been opened!  It’s the best part of quilting (picking out fabric) plus the fun of making rag dolls (minus the pain of sewing on the hair).  Plus the whole project goes relatively quickly.  And there is a whole world of trim to be explored:  rick rac, lace, ruffles, sequins…it’s going to be fun.

The first pattern I tried was the simplest.  I tried to start with a fabric that would be forgiving in terms of patterns matching up at the seams and something that wouldn’t overwhelm a very little girl.  It’s pretty roomy and probably won’t fit Holly until the summer.

The next dress was a little more complicated:  lined, with a sash that ties in the back, and a zipper.  There was one step of the pattern that I didn’t totally grasp, so I skipped it, thinking I would go back and figure it out.  That never happened, so I did end up hand sewing some of the lining in the end.  It also meant that I had to rig the zipper to fit it in.  Thankfully I’ve had enough practice on zippers with bags.  It all worked out in the end. 

If there is one thing I learned from Catholic high school, it’s how to sew a hem.  It was the nineties and the days of Britney Spears and Oops! I Did It Again, but we weren’t going that short.  We were just trying to fix the awkward length produced by the uniform company.  My mom has always been adamant that we never sew a hem on a machine, always by hand.  She would help with the uniform skirts, but my sister and I had to sew our parts too.  Those pleats stretched out into a ton of fabric.  There were many nights spent with my mom and sister around the kitchen table, turning up the hem of a plaid skirt.  Just like Little House in the Big Woods, right?

The third dress was made with my newww ser-ger!  (Can I get a “new serger” in a Bob Barker Price is Right voice?)  I’ve used a serger before, but it was a little overwhelming to sit down and figure out how to get everything set up.  Thankfully Trent’s mom and sisters were in town recently and we spent hours at the kitchen table getting everything threaded and the tension worked out.  By “we” I mean that at some point I moved to the living room to feed Holly, then ended up reading a magazine while Trent sat with them and worked on the tension.  It does take a village.  A few days later I was able to sit down and make another dress, alternating between my sewing machine and the serger.

I might end up overdoing it on the ric rac.  Why not?  Who else but a little girl can wear so much ric rac?

In trying to take a picture with my phone of Holly modeling the dress…

and we were constantly photo bombed by Panther.

I will admit that I am not getting enough sleep.  It has been so fun making these little dresses, but now it’s time to take a few days to get to bed at a decent hour.

Speaking of things I learned, or didn’t learn, in school, Rush and Tate had dinosaur week at their school last week and were talking about fossils in the car.  I told them we could see if they still sell trilobite fossils at the Museum of Natural Science.  (You could buy them 23 years ago, so certainly they still sell them.)  My dad chaperoned a museum field trip when I was in 4th grade.  In the gift shop, most of the girls were buying shiny hologram bookmarks.  I wanted one too, but my dad came over with a handful of trilobites.  In the words of Jimmers, Why get a bookmark for $2 when you can get a fossil for $2?  I have always been thankful for my dad steering me towards things like that.

Too bad our conversation in the car continued with Rush asking what a trilobite is.

“It’s like an old timey bug.”

Wrong.  Or is it?  And I am not kidding, I took a geology class in college completely about dinosaurs.  Old timey bug.  I should keep working on my sewing skills, because my fossil knowledge isn’t going to pay for college tuition around here anytime soon.