Um ... Hi!

Remember me? :>) So many links to post, so much to talk about. But all I'll do for today is share some cute dresses I stitched together for Goose. I made one for Memorial day, and of course she wouldn't get near it for the ceremony we attended. She has reconsidered, however, and worn it several times since. (and yes, there haven't been that many days since...)

Up first, the one I made first - a blue tank top with white stars turned into this:
It was my first run at elastic thread, and I'm not 100% happy with the results but it's cute enough and Goose loves it. I wound it on my bobbin by hand, then sewed four lines across the front and probably ten on the back, then sprayed with water and ironed to get it to shrink up. I can't manually adjust my bobbin tension, and it's too tight. I tried re-winding the bobbin and making it looser, and it was too loose. So I'll have to do some playing around. Oh, I used red thread on top for a fun contrast. I love it.

I cut the straps in the back and stitched them back together to shorten, though I left the long pieces on instead of trimming them off; and I stitched them down so they wouldn't flop and tickle. With as much time as I spent on this darn thing, I'd like Goose to be able to wear it next year!

To finish the dress, I sewed big red buttons on the straps (non-functional) and then I stitched some super-wide red rick-rack around the bottom. I think it's my favorite part! The first time I sewed it on, I tried really stretching the dress and it ended up too stretched - it didn't hold shape. So I took it off and gave it another try, and it's perfect. Actually the stretch in the dress from the first time gave it a nice shape the second time around. Who'd have thunk it?

Cost for this dress: $1.35 for the tank top (women's size) at Goodwill, probably 25 cents for the two buttons out of a package of several at Walmart, quarter for the rick-rack of which I used about 1/12th (remember that score? I still have the canvas and haven't figured out what to make with it yet) and probably another 50 cents for the elastic thread. That's a little over $2, plus some time, but it was totally worth it.

This dress was a bit easier since I started with one of Goose's old tank tops. It's actually a size 2T, but it still fits fine, just too short. The skirt was also formerly a woman's tank top. I cut the top off and pinned it on, stretching the shirt to match.

Actually, the pinning took waaaay longer than anything else! I'd pin and turn everything right side out to check, and one piece or the other would be inside out. So I'd re-do it, and the same thing would happen except both pieces would be flipped, so the other one was now inside out. Frustrating, but amusing!

To pin, I started by lining up the side seams, I then found the centers of both the skirt and top and lined them up, and stretched and pinned from there. I then sewed my widest, longest zig-zag stitch to give it as much stretch as I could. We're pretty pleased with the results.

Cost for this dress was $2 for the top from a consignment sale, and $1.35 for the one that became the skirt.

I hope everybody is having a good summer! I'll try to get back into some semblance of regular posting again soon.

See what everybody else is making at Skip to My Lou: