Liberty Dress

This dress has been a long time coming.  I put it off as long as possible while Kevin and the kids were camping, but I finally buckled down, finished it, and I love this dress!  I want to make more of them, with slight variations.  Maybe for next summer. 

 The fabric on the bodice and the lower skirt is from Liberty of London.  I bought it, and 4 other fabrics, when Kevin and I visited London a couple of years ago.  It is easily the most money I have ever spent of fabric, and I was nervous to cut into it.  It has just been sitting, waiting for the "right" project.  I finally had to push myself to just use it already.  Even then, I procrastinated out of fear of wasting my precious purchase.

The center, coral panel was a fabric I had on hand, and it was a perfect match for the Liberty fabric.  It doesn't show in the photo, but the coral has tiny little swirls in a tone-on-tone scheme.  It's really delicate, and has some texture to it.  I went back and forth trying to decide if I wanted the center section different or not.  I think it would have looked fine either way, but I'm happy with how this one looks.

 I used Simplicity pattern 2377 as my guideline, but made a couple of minor changes to the original pattern.  I wanted a little more fullness in the tiered layers, so the coral is a little longer than originally called for, and the Liberty fabric at the bottom is about two-thirds longer than the pattern is set for.  Honestly, both could be even more full, but I cheated a bit and just used the full width of the fabric.  A single width for the coral and double that for the Liberty.

I don't know how much longer she will enjoy having me make dresses for her, so I might as well do a few more while I still can.

It's hard to see in the other photos, but the Liberty fabric is sort of a funky damask style.  It looks very traditional from a distance, but there are octopi all over it, and little hidden anchors.  I centered one octopus on the front bodice, and there are two rows of them on the lower skirt.  I like that this dress looks pretty traditional, but has a little surprise in the details.

Now, what will I make with the rest of my fancy Liberty of London fabric?

Camping Weekend

Kevin took the kids camping this weekend.  Since I don't camp, I had the house all to myself, and I took the opportunity to finally tackle a few things in my sewing room. It's amazing how much I can get done when there are zero interruptions.

First up was finally finishing the tooth fairy pillow I started for Dorothy a long time ago.  It was all cut out and the embroidery and applique were done.  I just had to sew it together, stuff it, and sew up the hole.  Quick, but it would have been quicker if I had remembered to add the ribbons before sewing it up the first time.

A closer look at the embroidery.
It's a good things I finished this, because she lost another tooth the day they came home.  It works!  The tooth fairy found her tooth in the pillow just fine.

 

 Next up was a new t-shirt dress for Dorothy.  I love this style of dress on her and they are so quick to make.  I lucked out and found the blue shirt on clearance at Target.  It matches wonderfully with the fabric.  Too bad she didn't have this on Friday when she was to wear a blue shirt to school for a special event.  Why do I never have the "right" colors when stuff like that comes up?

 When she came home and saw the dress, she was really excited.  The skirt fabric is rainbows and unicorns, and it truly hideous in a way that only a six year old could love.  I bought a mystery box of remnants a while back, and this was one of the treasures in the box.  Never in a million years would I have chosen this fabric, but Dorothy loved it the minute she saw it.  The remnant was the perfect size to make this style dress, and I don't have any left over.  The dress is a touch long, but that is so she can still wear it next Spring.  The weather is starting to get cooler, so I'm not sure how much wear it will get right now.

 Here's a closer view of the "beautiful" fabric.  I'm glad she's happy and that I found a good use for this piece.

Lastly, I finished the last few of my 120 rainbow string squares for a quilt I'm making.  I still need to set the layout and piece together the top, then quilt it, but at least the squares are finally done!  It took a lot longer than I had anticipated to sew these strings together.  I hope it turns out as pretty as it is in my head.

I also worked on another dress for Dorothy that I had been putting off because the fabric intimidated me.  All I have left to do is hem it and trim the threads, so I'm hoping to finish it so she can wear it tomorrow.  That dress is more my style than the rainbow unicorn one, but she likes them both.

Kevin should take the kids camping more often so I get more done.