Molly’s Party Dress for Girls

Emily’s owner has been dying for a party dress to match theone her doll has. We both agreed that we should modify the huge ruffle sleeves and turn them into a puffed sleeve with ric rac trim. In hindsight, I am not sure that this works on such a plain, white bodice. While I didn’t want to draft princess seams and three giant ruffles, they add texture and interest to the bodice front, which this dress is sorely lacking.

I turned to my usual girls’ dress bodice block, Cottage Mama’s Party Dress. Size 8, with a larger centre back to allow for buttonholes. I still have the puff sleeve that I drafted for the Red Spotty Dress, but I added some more fabric in the centre of the sleeve to get more puff. It could do with more fabric in the length now too.

I trimmed the sleeve band and the pocket tops with the three colours of ric rac, then added them as details. The fabric is 100% cotton, and the bodice is self lined. I used a full width of the very wide cotton for the skirt, with no under layer. The doll’s dress is very short, which is pretty cute, but I prefer longer dresses on my girls, so the fabric length is 55cm. I made the sash separately, rather than fiddling about, integrating it into the dress. If it slips, I’ll add belt carriers to the sides. It was cut at 6 inches + 2cm.

My favourite feature of this dress is the red buttons on the back. They are vintage, from my Grandmother, or my Mother. They are little octagons and sit up very high, with a deep dip in the centre. I attached them with red thread. The button under the sash is flat and white, for comfort (and so I can keep the rest of the red ones!)

I think I will like this dress more with a red cardigan over the top and some frilly socks, and I'm not sewing a garment with plain white quilting cotton ever again. But, when you are sewing a commission, it doesn’t matter if you like it, the important thing is that the client is happy!

Costs:

Fabric:                £6.00 Rainbow Fabrics, Isle of Wight, 1m.

Pattern:               £0.00 Cottage Mama

Thread:               £0.00 Stash

Trim:                   £0.00 RicRac, stash

Buttons:             £0.00 Stash

Total:                  £6.00

Top 5 of 2015: Sewing

Here is my final roundup: my 5 favourite sewing projects of 2015.                                                 

1. Red Bow Dress

I love this dress! I wear it often and it always feels fun and lively. I get compliments too. After I made it, I did go back and let out the back darts to stop it clinging around the tummy (I forgot to do a short waist adjustment), and it looks better. The fabric is starting to stretch a bit around the backside, but will hopefully stand up to a few more seasons of wear.






2. Yellow Spot Top

Another fun and lively make that I really enjoy wearing. Interesting fabric, unusual colour, perfect pattern choice.










3. Navy Linen Dress

A hat trick of primary colours! This is a wardrobe staple that I have worn a lot. But I am going to shorten it for the SS16 season.










4. Sashiko Birds Dress

This almost didn't make the list, but the fun pattern and lovely colour wins over the cotton. Maybe all my Summer makes could do with being above the knee?









5. Doll Fur Accessories

This squeaks into 5th place because I had such fun styling and photographing this project. What you can't see is the black blanket, covered in lint (which I airbrushed out), hanging from a bookshelf, weighted by a toy box. Me on my kitchen floor, propping up a mirror, taken from the hall wall, to reflect the artificial light on to the dolls face! But the outfit is good fun too, and I secretly wish I had a fur cape and hot pink mini skirt.

Top 5 of 2015: Misses

What is the point of a top, without a bottom? Following on from my top 5 yarny makes from 2015, here are the misses. They are ranked in order of date, I have not assigned a ranking to my fails (in case their feelings get hurt).

1. Dahlia Dress

I'm a slow learner of the lesson: cheap fabric makes a disappointing dress. I probably also should not have made up this pattern, which calls for woven fabric, in a knit. A thick knit, no less. I feel frumpy in this dress, but I do wear it. It's comfortable and warm and I throw it on often.








2. White Broderie Dress

Another poor fabric choice. Just because it looks adorable on your children, doesn't mean it will do the same for you, Cathy. I'm planning to dye this dress, hoping the background will take the dye and the embroidery will stay white/silver - it looks like polyester. I have a swatch in my jeans pocket as we speak, awaiting their next refresh in navy dye. Turquoise would be awesome too, as would hot pink...






3. Drop Waist Dress

Poor child, this dress does nothing for her. It's too big, the colour washes her out and the fabric looks like it came from an old sheet. Oh wait - it did!









4. Peony Dress

I'm clearly a very slow learner: yet another terrible fabric choice. I also cut this dress too long. I'm going to hem it shorter next season. I would make this pattern out of quilting cotton again, but would go for a bold, large scale floral.








5. Crochet Snowflake

This was so bad that I didn't even blog it. It was meant for sending to a Christmas craft show, but I didn't. It went on the tree, but is now set for re-working. There is clearly a mistake in my counting. I will crochet another one in future, but will use a smaller pattern.








Well, I have certainly learned an important lesson from compiling this list. You would think it would be obvious, but it wasn't: fabric choice is key. Key! I have always known this with my kitting, I rarely buy acrylic yarn, preferring to spend my time using high quality (and high price) yarns. That is because knitting is about the process, not the outcome. In sewing, I am guilty of buying low priced fabric and now I can see how little I like the outcome.

Top 5 of 2015: Knitting

#sewingtop5 from Crafting a Rainbow is such a simple yet brilliant thing to do. In her words, "I think it's so important to look back, reflect, and take time to be proud of ourselves." So I'll do just that.

When I looked back at my blog entries for 2015, the projects that jumped out at me were almost all knitting ones. Thus, I am extending the rules slightly to include my top 5 knitting/yarn projects and my top 5 sewing ones.

Knitting

Considering this was the year that I tried to spend less time knitting, 2015 might be an #epicfail as I have 11 finished knitting projects on Ravelry. The good news is that I haven't been suffering from RSI, as I did in 2014, so I have been kind to my hands and given them some time off.

1. Afmæli Pullover



My first FO for 2015, even though most of the work was done in 2014. This is my favourite make. Perhaps of all time... I wear this constantly and it made a splendid Christmas jumper in 2015.




2. Learning to Crochet

Here I am, bending the rules again. OK, so it is not knitting, but it is still working with yarn. One of my goals for 2015 was to learn to crochet so, in January, I signed up for a class. Crochet is the reason that my wrists have healed. I've even gone one better and bought one of those hooks with a rubber handle. My 14 crochet projects have mostly been small squares and scrappy things, but I've recently made some doll garments that I'm very pleased with.


3. Ruby Tuesday Cardigan

Like my Afmæli, this is a cardigan that I live in, only in the Summer. The solid navy colour and sport weight yarn are the perfect ingredients for a wardrobe staple. Since I posted this, I went back and crocheted a new button band so I could add buttons all the way through the front, making it even more wearable.




4. Child's Cardigan

The yarn is the winner in this story, it is so soft and scrummy, how could anything not turn out nicely. This is such a perfect wardrobe staple, and looks neat and tidy. It is her favourite cardigan too.





5. Shawl(ette)

My first, and only, lace shawl; made wearable by being a shawlette. I do wear this as a scarf and I have some new laceweight cashmere yarn to enable some serious lace knitting.

Summer Doll Outfit

Now that Winter has taken a firm hold of the skies above this rainy, dark island, it is the perfect time to make a summer outfit for those dolls.

This pale blue crochet cotton has been giving me the eye ever since my mother salvaged it from the kerbside rubbish pickup in Australia. It is a lovely weight and colour and I am so delighted that I could take something that was being thrown away and enjoy the process of turning it into something new that will be enjoyed in turn.

First attempt = #fail

Since I didn't know how much was on the ball, I started with a doll hat. Pattern linked from my Ravelry notes. I do like these Elaine Phillips doll patterns, generously given away. The gauge was way off. I made the whole hat with the 2.5mm hook and it came out ridiculously small.
I didn't swatch, I just pulled it out and remade with my favourite size hook, the 4mm. It came out great.

The pattern has the crown continuing to increase as it moves down towards the hat band. This changes the shape into more of a bonnet, the brim re-enforces that effect. I liked the hat much better once I had added the ribbon, which pulled the whole thing in a little more. I left off the last row of the brim because I wanted to conserve yarn. This size frames the face nicely and a larger brim will get floppy quickly.

The Summer Top is made from the same yarn, in the same style, by the same pattern designer. It actually uses less yarn than the hat. Those dolls have big heads. Luckily they don't mind wearing a top that is a bit sheer, but this wouldn't transfer into a human garment without a lining, or a vest underneath.

I upsized my hook again and mistakenly increased too much over the first few rows. I used them up in the sleeve caps, which have 4 fan stitches each, instead of 3. Lucky I did, because the sleeves are a perfect fit, if not a little on the small side.

I added a few more repeats of the shell stitch down through the body, about two extra, to take the top to just below the doll's waist.

I liked the outfit so much, I bought some more crochet cotton (3 ply) to make more! I love this yarn! Every time I discover a new yarn, it becomes my new favourite. Then I buy loads of it so I can have matching colourways to make new things. I restrained myself with just a turquoise and a white this time. Reasoning that the second ball is required to reduce the cost of shipping for both. (£8 for one, £12 for two - should have got three!) When it arrived, I thought it was way to thin and almost sent it back. But when I compared it to the original baby blue, it was exactly the same.

The skirts are made up from some scraps of broderie anglaise that my mother in law had stashed. It was a long, skinny scrap, looking a lot like a table runner. I used 3 widths of it for the skirt and made French seams. I wanted a ribbon tie waistband, but that would be too fiddly for children, so elastic it was. I kept the length below the knee. I'm going to help Big Sis make one of these for her BFF.

Crochet Ballet Bun Net

I had a tiny scrap of cotton yarn and it was the perfect colour to match the light blue leotard that my girls wear to ballet. I decided to make a bun net.

I searched for a pattern that was extremely net-like. Most of the ones I found were lovely, but had far too high a yarn:hair ratio. They looked too much like tea cosies. Instead, I made up my own version using triple crochet with lots of chain stitches in between.

Here are my notes (terms are US crochet terms):

Row 1: Chain (Ch) 8, join to form ring.

Row 2: Ch 7, *Triple Crochet (Tr) into ring, Ch 3* 5 times, join with slip stitch (sl st) to 4^th Ch at beginning of row. This makes a "wheel" with 6 "spokes".

Row 3: Ch 7, *Triple Crochet (Tr) into row 2, Ch 3* 11 times, join with slip stitch (sl st) to 4^th Ch at beginning of row. One Tr into stitch below, one into Ch between. This doubles the size of the "wheel" and the number of "spokes".  (If a larger diameter net is needed, repeat this row, doubling the stitches again.)
Row 4: Ch 7, *Tr into top of each Tr from row 3, Ch 3 between* 11 times. Join. This turns the corner to start the sides of the net by keeping the number of "spokes" the same.
Row 5: Same as Row 4. To make the net deeper, this row can be repeated as many times as needed.
Row 6: Ch 4, *Double crochet into row 5, ch 1* Once into the top of each "spoke", once in between. Join. This creates an edge for threading the elastic and/or ribbon.
Finishing: Thread elastic and sew into a loop and/or thread ribbon and leave ends loose for ties.

Making this was very fast, but I don't love triple crochet. Maintaining the tension is hard and my stitches were quite loose and loopy. But it is a perfect way to use up those last few scraps of crochet cotton.

Festival of Faux Fur – Doll outfit

Well, the dolls are certainly ready for some cold weather. The elves have been crafting a flurry of faux fur accessories for them, and they will be ready and waiting under the tree on Christmas morning.

First up, two winter hats. Released by Pleasant Company, the creator of American Girl, and still available deep within the bowels of Google, Samantha’s Pretty Clothes pattern collection includes a winter hat in the style of a tam / beret. I’ve had this white fur for years, buying it in a rash promise to make Santa hats for the children. It came out to trim the doll’sbaking aprons last year, but otherwise has sat around unused. I learned my lessons though and didn’t cut this with a rotary cutter – which slices through the fur pile in a horrible way. Instead, I drew the pattern on to the back with chalk and then snipped out - only the backing - with embroidery scissors. This keeps the fur intact and actually makes very little mess. I even had a remnant of white satin which my mother had bought the children as fun scraps. This went into the lining of the hats. I didn’t follow the pattern instructions exactly, I couldn’t figure out how to make a channel for the elastic without sewing through the fur pile so I sewed the elastic loop to the seam allowance and then turned and closed by hand.

The Samantha hat was a bit larger and shallower than I was imagining. I wanted more of a Russian style fur hat, so I improvised another one with a smaller diameter and a deeper crown (9cm). It came out a little large, but since the dolls aren’t doing any strenuous activity, I think I got away with it.

The cape is my favourite part of this whole outfit. It was ridiculously quick and easy. No seam finishing, no lining, no hem. Just cut it out, two side seams, front hem closed by hand, attach the ribbon to the neckline and cut the bottom hem evenly. I used the cape I made for Halloween as a template, but shortened the length to 20 cm. It would also be cute even shorter. I think I’d better make another one about 15cm long. I left it unlined because I didn’t want it slipping around on the dolls shoulders. They don’t need the warmth, or the comfort, of a lining. The ribbon makes the whole thing ultra-luxe. I was hunting in my ribbon stash for a black one, but then came across this white grosgrain with gold edging. It arrived last year as part of the gorgeous wrapping that Kirsten at Wrapsody did for us last Christmas.  Amazing!

Finally, the skirt: This pink babycord was a pair of toddler knickers matching a dress. My kids never wore knickers over their nappies. I trained them to be ladylike as young as possible, and not show their knickers. (Kidding! I just couldn’t be bothered peeling off even more layers with every nappy change.) But, for some reason, I kept the pants. After my successful refashion of a summer pair, I had these in mind for a winter pair, with white accent. This pair took some time because the elastic was sewn to the casing, not in a channel, so it meant lots, and lots, of unpicking. But it was worth it: the waistband went back into the skirt, one leg into the hat, and the other leg into a ballet bun. Once something is on my sewing table, I feel a compulsion to keep going until I have used up every last scrap. I added the white ribbon to hide the top of the fur trim, which doesn’t work well when turned over and is really ugly if left raw.

I tried to use another pattern from the clothing set, gaiters, but they just looked like yeti feet so I abandoned them. I might try cutting the pile shorter, because... furry boots!

I think the elves might be in trouble if they only supply one snowy outfit so I have one more week to make a vest, some boots and maybe a navy skirt. Probably another cape too. That is in addition to the summer outfits coming up and the school uniform that I think would be so much fun. Those elves better stop loafing on the sofa with their crochet every evening.