While sorting through my collection of fabrics in December, in order to find some pinstripe pale blue and white fabric (which I knew was there somewhere), to make a gorgeous pinafore dress for a 6 month old little girl, I found what I was looking for, and also some lovely black and white polka dot fabric. I had bought it a few months before to make a dress for myself, and hadn’t found the time to do it yet!
I have made so many dresses over the years, and usually always successfully when following a pattern, but with varying degrees of success when I attempt to make my own patterns (I am not a pattern maker unfortunately, but it is on my bucket list of things to do still!). I usually work at them until they pass my very strict ‘this does not look home made’ test, and as a result, many of the dresses in my cupboard, I have either made or used to make a copy, so that I have two similar dresses in the styles I love. Some work amazingly well with relative ease, and others take a wee bit longer (and include a few stressful hours…..or days of unpicking and redoing parts etc…..until I am happy)!
The little girls dress worked beautifully, (as seen in the picture), and is one I made my own pattern for from a pinafore style dress from Mothercare in London, given to my daughter when she was born, by one of my oldest friends. I just loved the dress, and all 3 of my daughters wore it as 1 year old’s, so I copied it and have made a few since, and this one will not be the last either. Maybe I will get to make one for a grand daughter of my own one day…! The dress for me also worked quite well, so now next time I need a cocktail dress or similar for an occasion, I can just pull this one out the cupboard, with no stress as to what am I going to wear!
In fact, I have done quite a bit of sewing this year already. We were invited to a wedding in February in the Karoo, a semi desert part of our beautiful country, where the vastness of the landscapes…..the colors of the sand…..heat of the sun and awesome sunset colors…..and just its pure remoteness all make for a wonderful place to escape the busy world and just enjoy being out in nature. The color theme was all tied up with the desert colors and surrounds, so I decided to make a dress for the occasion, as the one which would have been perfect, fitted me perfectly a few years back (and some…!), when I wore it for my brother’s wedding, but unfortunately doesn’t fit me perfectly any longer! It still looks new as wasn’t worn very often, and the style is timeless.
So…..I had to make a pattern again, a size or two bigger than that dress, so the new one would fit me now. It wasn’t easy making the pattern but I managed – where there’s a will there’s a way! I was determined to make this work as the dress is lovely and the wedding was fast approaching! I bought some earthy colored fabric, and got cutting and sewing, and ended up with a good result – a lovely dress I could wear, and did, to the wedding! It took lots of adjusting but I was very happy with it in the end, and it also took a while perfecting the invisible hem I did on the machine! I was determined not to do it by hand, though that would have been quicker. I think I need a refresher course on my Nina machine. For some reason I battled with it!
I have also made wrap skirts for two of my three daughters this year, and I have made many storage bags as described in an earlier blog post this year, and some tote bags and tablerunners and tablemats, so I have been busy on my machine! I hope this inspires you to get sewing if you own a machine, or think of having some lessons…it is a very rewarding h