Dotty Party Dress

  I found this dotted corduroy fabric at JoAnn's last October, and it was just perfect for Gaiw, so I decided to buy a piece, along with some coordinating coral corduroy, to make the Oliver + S Birthday Party Dress.

  I finished it in the end of February, just in time for the weather to warm up and make it uncomfortable to wear, oops! I swapped out the armscyes for the ones from the Building Block Dress while making the shoulders wider, and added long sleeves with a wide ruffle.

  I should have made the sleeves a bit longer, and top-stitched the ruffle seam so the ruffles wouldn't flip up!

  I also lengthened the dress a few inches. Because I added sleeves, I changed the sewing order up to match, but forgot to modify the facing! At least there's no chance of it flipping outward this way...

  The facing would have worked better in the coral fabric, as the dots peek out more than I'd like where the tops of the pleats fall open. I did use the coral for the hem facing though, and hand-stitched the top of that in place:

  I made this for Gaiw, but it's a little on the small through the shoulders for her, and since the sleeves are also a little too short, it works better for Beckers. I don't think it's the fault of the pattern- I just didn't widen the shoulders enough when I swapped out the armscyes. I'll probably use the pattern again, with or without modifications... it's a good quality pattern, if not the twirly style that my daughters prefer!

  I used a pink button to match one of the dot colors on the tabs, and sewed it on with coral thread:

  The back is done up with aqua-colored, heart-shaped KAM snaps.

  Next time I use corduroy I really need to remember to interface the inner AND outer layers of the button placket if I'm adding snaps. This fine-wale stuff is just not sturdy enough for snaps without that interfacing! I also need to work on lining the snaps up properly...

  In spite of all of the 'should have's, this dress fits my initial vision pretty perfectly, so I do like the end result!

  Also, for some reason this dress, shoe, and hair (her hair just grows like that! I've never cut it!) combination is giving me a vintage vibe...

  Hopefully this dress will fit Beckers next fall, but if not there's another sister or a couple of cousins to hand it down to... after all, it's barely been worn!

  I don't think Gaiw will mind passing it on- she loved the dots at first, but it just wasn't twirly enough for her! I'll have to find another dotty fabric to make a twirly dress for her.

  Thanks for stopping by,

Plumber Presents

  My husband is a plumber. For his birthday in February, I made two shirts for him.

  The first is black:

  As usual, I used Jalie 2918 with a slightly narrower neckband, and the fabric is the same 12oz cotton spandex blend from Nick of Time Textiles that I was using last year.

  My husband thought this was really funny! I used tan heat transfer vinyl for this one.

  As usual, I twin-needled the hem:

  The second one is blue, with white heat transfer vinyl:

  Same pattern, same fabric but in a different color, once again with a twin-needled hem:

  He had requested this saying on a shirt sometime last year, so he was very happy with this shirt too!

  I've made these shirts so many times now that I don't really have much I can say about them! Joshua says that the shirts I make for him are by far the most comfortable that he owns, so there will probably be even more in the future.

Thanks for stopping by,