Anyway, the little girl next door had her first birthday and I knew exactly what I wanted to make. The problem was that I didn't even get started before my parents came to visit and we had the crazy birthday extravaganza for Malcolm. I managed to get one outfit completed just before her party (and by just before, I mean that the party had started and I was sewing on the buttons before we could go over there). Too bad I forgot to take a picture before wrapping it up. Maybe I'll see if her mom could take one or let me come over and take one. You will just have to trust me that it was a really cute deep purple with lime green and aqua elephants with polka dots and the bloomers had ruffles on the butt. I still have a lot of fabric left, so I might need to make something else for Dorothy (but Malcolm is next on my list, so she will have to wait).
A couple of weeks later, I finally got around to making her this beach towel.
Yes, you can see the hoop lines. If I don't take a photo right away, it will probably never happen. I have done several towels in the past and have found that the cheap towels in Target's dollar section work the best. Most towels are too thick to hoop easily, then I get all sorts of other issues, but these are thin and cheap. I did a couple last summer and was kicking myself for not buying more while they had them. This year I bought a whole bunch, but the only colors they had were pink and turquoise. I liked the royal blue and orange from last year better. I hope they have them again next year because I think I might start doing these for the 1,000 birthdays that seem to happen now that Malcolm is in school.
Last night, I finally finished the final project for Rowan. It's a good thing she is only a year old so that she doesn't know how long it has taken me to get her gift to her. In fact, they are currently out of town and have still not received it yet. I'm so excited about how it turned out though that I'm blogging about it now. Ruthie, if you are reading, stop now if you want it to be a surprise!
I love this one so much that I'm a little sad to see it go. I saw it sitting out this morning and thought about putting it on Dorothy, but didn't. I saw this fabric a few months ago, but didn't buy it because I wasn't sure what I would make with it. I just love the color and the vintage feel of design and it works great for a project like this.
The front. I have made a similar set before, but this time, I tried some new things. Usually, I use ribbon for the shoulder ties, but I couldn't quite match any of the colors, so I had to make them. It isn't hard, but it is time consuming. Instead of whipping this out in one or two nights, it took me three. I don't spend a huge amount of time each night in my sewing room, but it probably took and extra couple of hours with the changes I made. That, and I had to re-iron a lot of things once I realized that it wasn't hot enough. I should have known something wasn't right when I wasn't burning my fingers while rolling the hem.
back
Just the bloomers, front.
Just the bloomers, back. Note the adorable ruffles. Again, they weren't hard to do, but they did take some time. I have done ribbon in the past, and that goes much, much faster. Instead of gathering them by hand, I tried a trick I had read about. I used the same shirring method that I used to make the top, then just stitched them down on the butt before sewing the sides of the bloomers together. It worked great and is much faster than basting then gathering. I'm glad I didn't use ribbon on this piece because I think the matching fabric is a nice look with this pattern.
I also have plenty of this fabric left over and Dorothy might need a little something too. At this rate she won't have to wear the same thing twice all summer. I probably shouldn't make her any more clothes.
I love that fabric!
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