Friday 23 April 2010

Spotty Wrap Dress

There's a lovely little dress in a shop in town, which I would love for Baby, but they only make it in sizes up to 12 months and she's now 22 months old. :-(

This is the dress...

http://www.mothercare.com/Humphreys-Corner-dress/dp/B0031NOZDQ/sr=1-2/qid=1272052090/ref=sr_1_2/276-1987948-9217856?_encoding=UTF8&m=A2LBKNDJ2KZUGQ&n=42764041&mcb=core

I decided to try making a version myself, without the elephant embroidery and without the big bow on the front. I think it turned out quite well.

Instead of the spotty strip and white ruffle around the bottom I used this cotton trim. I bought a full 100m reel of it on ebay for about £1.99 when I was making frilly bibs for my first baby, 7 years ago. Since then it has been used on skirts, dresses, doll clothes, baby blankets, bibs, etc. and there is still quite a lot left!

I started overlocking and one of the needles snapped. I can't find the hex key to replace the needle at the moment, so I did a 3-thread overlock instead which wasn't great (I didn't get the tension quite right) but was preferable to raw edges.

Topstitching the trim.

The bodice.

The almost-finished dress. All I have to do is add the poppers (snaps) to the back and sew in the last loose threads.

Monday 12 April 2010

I Finally Finished the Quilt!!

My YCMT quilt has been sitting around unfinished for about a year, during which time the baby has grown up so much that she won't be able to use it as a pram quilt!

We've had a very full year, and I've hardly been near the sewing machine. Our eldest daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in July 2009. In February 2010 our son (just turned 5) started showing symptoms too, and he has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes too. It's a lot to cope with, but we manage, and the injections, carb-counting, etc. are becoming a routine part of daily life in our family.



Today the two eldest children went back to school after their Easter holiday, and the baby decided to have a good nap, so I thought I would try getting a bit more of the quilt done.


Here is the quilt top pinned to the wadding (batting).




I chose to use the same pink flowery fabric for the backing as I had used for the border.

All ready to start stitching!


The back. I decided not to do anything too complicated.

Almost finished! The binding sewn on at the front and pinned at the back, ready to be sewn. It's not a magic, self-standing quilt. Somewhere behind there, there's a 7-year-old standing on a chair! :-)
The camera batteries ran out before I did the blind hemming, but as it basically looks exactly like the pictures above, you don't really need another photo.
I'm glad it's done, but wish I'd finished it while "the baby" (now nearly two years old) was still tiny enough to use it in her pram. It would have looked gorgeous.