Pink Sally Dress - A Little Late to the Party

I have been wanting to sew up a Sally Dress ever since it came out as part of the Sew Fab bundle last fall. This dress was everywhere at the time but Elena just didn't need anymore dresses, and I have taken a vow of practicality in my sewing. So now that she is recently potty trained, dresses are fantastic and I've made her a few.

I went with sleeveless for the hot summer days. The main fabric is a quilting cotton from Joann's last year. The lining and pockets are unknown except to say that they are quite sheer cotton. Elena has a very narrow body so I cut the smallest width, the 2T, with a 4T length. She just turned 3 so it averages out, right? It worked out really well and fits her great. The only time the shoulders were slipping off was when she had a heavy pony in one pocket pulling that side over.

The only change I made was to use the burrito method to do the bodice lining. I have done other projects using the pattern's technique, but I changed it so I wouldn't have to have top stitching. After I sewed the neckline and clipped into the corners and trimmed the seam allowance, I understitched the lining as much as possible, turned it right side out, and pressed it nice and flat. Then I followed this tutorial for the explanation of how to roll it up. I am hooked on this technique and want to make all the burrito things now!

I think I'll use this pattern a lot more in the years to come. With all the different sleeve options, it becomes really versatile to fit all the seasons of the year with different weight fabrics. I don't see why it couldn't be done in knits as well. A polar fleece version would be so comfy, but it's almost 90 degrees out right now so I can't even think about polar fleece without sweating. 

You may have noticed that I haven't been blogging much lately. But I have been sewing, so I hope you'll subscribe through e-mail or Bloglovin so we can keep in touch more easily. You can find those links up near the top of my sidebar. See you again soon!

Folk Art Bird Garland

Birds of a feather flock together - across my fireplace mantel. I have a fun little project to share with you today. I made a garland of stuffed birds to use up scraps and bits of this and that and to fill my time in the evenings . Each one is unique and together they make an interesting folk art decoration.

They are strung together with glass beads. Some were purchased and others come from a broken necklace.

To make them, I made paper templates to keep them uniform. I hand-sewed the details using felt, buttons, sequins, beads, and yarn. I basted the wings onto each front and back and then machine sewed around. I used fiber fill to stuff them and then machine sewed the bottom closed - because I'm lazy like that. 

I made 3 or 4 at a time in front of the TV and then went to the machine for finishing. It took about a week in all. 

We happen to be bird lovers in our house, but you could make something similar out of turtles or fish or flowers or whatever you can imagine.

 I'm linking up to LeChallenge for the "small" theme because there are lots of small components here - overall size, buttons, beads, prints, trims... If you are unfamiliar, you should check it out.