Our Happy Dress

 

This, I call our happy dress! Sometimes I am drawn by the fabric that I use, other times it is the design of the garment itself that determines what fabric I use. This is my first blog post and I am pretty excited about this project not just for the fabric but because it’s one of the first projects to open our MOM AND DAUGHTER CLOSET adventures. The fabric is African wax print which usually comes in vibrant, and rich, beautiful colours.

 

I drafted all of Chizzy’s pattern. I remember trying to fit the sloper on her body and how she kept asking if I was almost done. Probably not a good idea to do fitting on an 8 year  old. I think it might be best to use a store bought pattern and modify to suit your design. Notice that the skirt part is gathered at the side front. It starts from the front waist dart and goes all the way through the side seam to the back waist dart while the front  center remains flat.

 

For Ama’s own, I used a New Look for kids pattern #6796 for the bodice but used the remaining rectangular fabric for the skirt. I didn’t  really need to draft it since it required a simple rectangle. This New Look pattern was the same pattern I used for her romper  I made in the summer. I found and bought this pattern from my local Goodwill Store (a thrift store) for $1.00 CAD

 

For my dress, I used a Burda Style bodice sloper which I adjusted for a good fit. I drafted the skirt myself from my self-drafted straight skirt sloper.

Sometimes, when I sew, I like to match the patterns of the designs on the fabric where there is a fastening or closure. In this case, I did that with the center back invisible zipper application. In the past I had done that for bolder patterns or stripes, and diagonals but this one had more intricate designs and I enjoyed the challenge of matching the two sides. I did not do the same for the girls own because the fabric quantity wasn’t sufficient to allow for that.

 

 

So one mistake I made was that out of excitement about pattern matching the CB zipper, I forgot to finish up the armscye first before closing up the side seams and attaching the zipper so I had to finish up the the armhole with bias binding because there was no way I was going to undo everything and start afresh. The old perfectionist me would have done so. I am on a journey of unlearning perfectionism thanks to Jon Acuff and his book, Finish.

I would like to state here that if you tend to be perfectionist like me (but I’m working on it now) I would highly recommend this book. You certainly are not alone and there’s someone who understands you well and has been able to describe those challenges in words that only a perfectionist would understand and he has also proffered solutions or actionable to do’s. It’s a brilliant book! By the way,this is not an affiliate post just that i will share with you whatever has helped me so that you can get help too if you need to.

A few more photos:

 

So I’m new to this whole ‘putting yourself out there’ thingy and new to blogging so thanks for stopping by and don’t hesitate to let me know what you think.

 

Nene – The Mom and Daughter Closet

 

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton