Friday, March 6, 2015

Looking ahead ...

Well, I haven't done much sewing recently, but since we haven't yet moved out of long-sleeve T-shirts and most patterns I have are for spring and summer dresses, the three I have done haven't even made it off the hangers for more than the initial fitting/photos.  I haven't completely given up on this learning to sew thing yet, though.

I did start one more version of Lily Studio's Birthday Party Dress, this time in fabric Vivienne chose from my stash.
When in Asia ... buy Japanese cute!  Vivienne is a huge fan of these kitties.

Since the last one was mommy's choice of black and white sophisticated patterns, I figured it was her turn.  This is the first time I am remaking the same pattern.  The only major change I am making is lining it with a super cheap, lightweight cotton blend white fabric because lining it with itself would show colors through the white parts and I'm going to try to add a skirt to the lining.  (At least, I think it's some kind of cotton blend fabric.  My Chinese for fabrics doesn't go much beyond the words for cotton and wool, so I never really know what I'm buying.  So far, I lined her bunny dress with it and I really like it.  It's so light it doesn't weight the dress down, it will wrinkle less than pure cotton, it feels nice, and it doesn't double the price of the project.  We'll see how long it lasts before it falls apart!)  I'm going to have to do a bit of thinking it through when it comes to attaching the skirt lining since it's not in the instructions, but I think I can figure something or other out by looking at other patterns, etc.  If I learn anything earth-shattering, I'll let you know.  I also really want to pay attention to when I should topstitch what since that isn't in the original pattern, but I really like how the topstitching makes the dress look more professional and will help it hold its shape when it gets washed.  Anyway, if all goes well, I'll be posting pictures here pretty soon, as long as I can stop thinking of a thousand future projects long enough to actually figure out how to finish this one.