Pink Chocolate Dress

{ three dresses in five days}

What have I done, another dress…I don’t really have an excuse…well maybe because Lovely Little Big Daughter can’t really wear the summer dress so I decided to make one for her to wear now.

I bought this flower corduroy fabric at the Dutch Fabric Market last autumn and it was supposed to be a bag for my Lovely Best Friend in the UK (sorry Lovely BF!). I didn’t mean to combine it with gingham, but one I was looking for a fabric to do the inside part and two the gingham matched the dress perfectly.

I wasn’t sure about the style of the dress. I just started and although I did a few new for me things, I tried not to venture out of my comfort zone too much. Can you spot a trend…I love wide borders on skirts and wide sashes with big bows hence the big border and the bow.

Little Big Daughter has a play date this afternoon so she hasn’t seen the dress yet and I really hope she’ll like it.

Oh, and about the third dress I mentioned at the beginning of this post – I promise to show it to you in the next few days. It is a part of a cat outfit for Carnival next week...more of this in the next post.

It was a rather gloomy day today so I couldn’t really take any good photos, sorry. The dress is much more cheerful that it looks on the photos.

 I made the body of the dress using this tutorial from Cool People Sew. I love this blog, what a pity it is no longer active.

Hope you are having a nice week!

Love

Irina xx

Linking this post to:
We Did It Wednesday at Sew Much Ado
Show and Share at Southern Lovely
Lil Luna 
Made By Me at JAQS Studio
Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts

Summer dress in February

{ longing for summer}

The weather here in Frankfurt has been absolutely freezing -10C during the day. Don’t get me wrong I like winter but not this type of city dry cold winter with no snow. So I was looking for an excuse, to put some summer thoughts in my mind and to make something summery.

I wanted to make a dress out of an old t-shirt for a while now; I just didn’t have the right fabrics, or a t-shirt which has been worn but still looks good. I stumbled upon a couple of lovely blogs ( links at the end of this post) full of gorgeous girls dresses which provided the inspiration…so here is my Saturday morning creation. Lovely Little Big Daughter is in love with her new dress…and so am I.

 

 

I didn’t really use an old t-shirt. I had none witch matched so I got a vest from H&M on the sale for 1 euro.

I love the big bow...it makes the dress ever so girlie...

Summery fabric...

Ruffles…so nice and not so hard to make...

Check out : How to make a t-shirt dress tutorial by Cool People Sew and Dress with ruffeled neckline tutorial by Two Giggle Boxes.

Stay warm and have a lovely Sunday!

Love,

Irina xx

P.S. Linking this post to:

Dresses for Girls Party at Threading My Way
Toys In the Dryer 
Nifty Trifty Sunday 
Polly Want A Crafter
Made by you Monday at Skip To My Lou
Tip me Tuesday at Tip Junkie 
Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings 
Take-A-Look Tuesday at Sugar Bee Crafts 
Topsy Turvy Tuesdays at I'm Topsy Turvy 
Uncommon Designs

Recycled Jumper Felted Dress

{loving autumn leaves}

We have been going to the park regularly to collect conkers and leaves– conkers are very important in the life of a three and a half year old, you know.  The more the better, they are used to cook with, as form of payment and even as treasures hidden in secret places, especially pockets. 

The leaves we collected were so lovely that I decided to make leaf appliqué. An old felted jumper from my husband provided the fabric, so I decide to make a felted dress. This is the second piece of clothing that I have made from an old jumper. I love the fact that something which initially was heading for the bin can be reused; and also all those felted jumpers are made of 100% wool, so are sure to keep my girl nice and warm on cold days.

 

The dress was really fun to make and I can’t believe how easy it is to sew with felt. I am yet to clean my sewing machine – apparently felt fluffs a lot, so a regular clean is a must.

 

1-3 You’ll need – an old jumper, or other wool felt fabric, pattern, and scraps of autumn coloured fabric (I chose browns) and a nice selection of leaves to use for your appliqué.

4. Make your pattern – fold and existing dress that fits in half and trace around it (adding seam allowance) to create a simple A line dress pattern.

5.  Place the pattern on your jumper / fabric and trace with magic marker or water soluble pen. Cut the dress shape.
6. Pin and machine stitch the dress on the sides (I later wondered if it was better to stitch the shoulder bit – like in photo 9 and add the bias tape around the arm hole first and than sew the sides together – YES it is better)

7 - 8 Trace a selection of leaves onto paper and cut. Use Vlisofix or freezer paper to trace and iron the leaves onto your chosen fabric (photos 18 -19)

10-12 Add he bias tape – I first stitched one side of the bias tape to the back on the garment, and than fold it and stitched on the front – photo 11 – it gives it a very nice neat finish

The button closure at the back was absolutely easy to make. I followed this tutorial – its fool proof.

 

Here it is - a very easy, recycled jumper dress!

Happy sewing!

Irina xx

Summer dress

 

I have always known  that I wanted to have a go at clothes making...i just never had the courage to do it! And I know why…it is not so easy! Well the sunny weather at the weekend made me dream about a nice pink dress for my little one. In fact I had something lying in the cupboard...it was meant to be a tunic, attached to a cut T-shirt, but for many days I tried to feel OK about the fact that probably the tunic will get stained the very first time...so such tunic never materialised. However a dress is a whole other story, and after Little Daughter called it Butterfly dress, and said that some pink wings would go well with it, I knew I did right!

Here is Little Daughter looking for said wings in her dress up box !

Love,

Irina xx