Edelweiss Dress

I made the Edelweiss Dress from Hey June for Dorothy, just in time for our first very warm day.  It was my first garment I have made with my new serger, and other than one minor issue (and having to use the seam ripper) it went really well.  It sewed up much faster than it would have using just my regular sewing machine.

Dorothy measured a size 2 for the chest and a 5 for the length.  I went with a size 4, and added an inch and a half to the length, and it is a pretty close fit.  It's a touch big, but not enough to bother me, and maybe she will get two summers out of it.

I bought the seersucker fabric for a song a couple of years ago, thinking it would make a cute dress for Dorothy.  At the time, orange was her favorite color.  She still likes orange (though her "favorite" changes hourly) and I love the summery print without it being like anything else she already has.

 The front.  Instead of making the ruffles, I used a wide eyelet ruffle I purchased.  I also added the eyelet ruffle to the bottom to balance it out.  I think seersucker ruffles would have been too much, and the eyelet gives the dress a very sweet look. 

 Moving.  The dress falls just barely below her knee, so she has some growing room, but it's not so longs as to get in her way while playing.

 The back.  You can see that it's a touch too big around, but not by much.  I made a small mistake with my serger which made it a tiny bit tighter around on one side, but luckily I had a little room to work with.  I sewed the buttons on a touch high, but I probably won't bother to move them.

 Cheesy pose, but it shows off the fit under the arms.  I was afraid the straps were going to be too short, but they were just right (I did not adjust them at all from the pattern).

Overall, A+.  I love the style on her and it's easy to make minor variations to the dress to change things up.  The pattern goes up to a size 10, so hopefully I can make some more of these before she's completely out of her dress phase.

Purdue Sweatsuit

I finally finished the Purdue sweatsuit I started for Dorothy months ago.  I have had the pants done for a long while.  I finally got around to doing the jacket and the thread didn't tie off correctly, so I had to hand stitch part of the drum, and it took me a while to build up the courage to try it.  Once I just sat down and did it, it turned out lovely, and you can't even tell where the stitching pulled out and I mended it by hand.

 It's a little hard to see, but I embroidered a block P on the chest pocket of the jacket and on one pant leg.

 When I did the jacket, I accidentally switched the silver and the gold threads.  I meant to have the gold on the outside, to match the one I did on the pants, but I sort of like the silver being the main color.  It stands out nicely on the black background.

 On the pant leg. Yes, she is wearing Purdue rain boots.  It ha been storming very badly here, and they were perfect.   Never pass up an opportunity to be super matchy.

 I couldn't get zip up sweatshirts without hoods, so I purposely positioned the drum a bit low so it wouldn't be completely covered up.

Without the hood in the way, it's a bit low, but I like how it looks.  If I do the drum again on a black background, I think I'll use a darker grey for the carriage.  I went with the medium grey, which looks OK, but when it was wet, I liked the darker color.  Usually, it would be black, but that wouldn't look right on a black sweatshirt.

I have a short sleeve, heather grey shirt that I want to put the drum on too, so she could wear the set together.  For today, it was just over her leotard for gymnastics class.  Luckily, it's big enough that she should be able to still wear it next fall.