On JULY 7th, My Rosebud is turning 2. She's a silly minxy, and I love her to pieces. My desire to focus as much of my energy as possible to being the best mama I can be was what inspired me to plan Project Rosebud. Hopefully, over the the next year, I can make her lots of lovely clothes, yummy food, and just spend lots of quality time with her. Hopefully in developing this side of my personality, I can help also find balance in other areas of my life. Who knows, maybe this will be the push in the right direction I need to feel like my life is moving forward in a positive way.
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| the supplies cost less than half the cost of an "official" dress |
So before my official Seam Allowance Challenge for the year starts up in July, I thought it would be good to dust of the sewing machine and my rulers and drafting tools and make up a couple of "simple" projects. With Rosebud's birthday coming up, and Halloween only a few months away, I thought it would be good to get a head start on the holiday and kill two birds with one stone. Rosebud loves Princess Snow White. Snow White and Pooh's Heffalump Adventure are the only two movies she's allowed to watch, and she earns her viewings with successful potty usage (we're on a merit based system here).
Crazy lady that I am, I decide I'm going to make my daughter the best little Princess Snow White dress ever! I just can't bring myself to buy those "official" Disney dresses from Target. Not only are they overpriced, but they are poorly constructed too. :P Yuck! No, thank you! But it isn't enough that I want to make the dress....I also have to design the pattern so I can custom make it to my daughter's "unique frame." I studied the movie, documented the colors and what I thought the fabrics should be, and then went to the fabric store and got the necessary supplies. In the time it took for her to watch the movie (about 1hr 20 min) I had drafted a pattern and cut out most of the pieces. The supplies cost less than half of the "official" costume.
Well after a week of sewing, here it is, Princess Rosebud's Princess Snow White dress! Its super stretchy, machine washable, and completely clean sewn...no rough edges or unfinished seams, you could wear this dress inside out if you wanted!
She loves her dress and didn't want to take it off. Currently its residing in her closet, waiting for me to make the cape. She has never worn a full length dress before and was mystified by how her feet disappeared beneath the hem. She kept saying "where's my feet? They've disappeared" in her super cute little voice.
This morning, I decided to sew up a "quick" little project. Charlotte desperately needs pants that fit. She's outgrown her 4T pants, and its hard to find 5T in the store. Not to mention, they don't fit well anyway. If I'm going to be making most of her clothes going forward. I want to have a basic stretch pant block for her. Well that "simple" project turned into a 4 hour struggle with fabric and pattern. I had forgotten how complex pants can be, how tricky stretch fabrics are to sew, and how unreliable my cheapass machine is to sew on. Do I need a new machine...ah, yes. Can I afford one....ah, well, no. So it was a "make it work" kind of morning, if you know what I mean!
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| Sewing the elastic into the cuff of the infamous purple pants |
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| Pants stretched out to maximum length |
First off, I have a hard time remembering how to draft pants from basic measurements. So I went to my old design school textbooks...useless for children's basic stretch pants (or children's patterns in general). So I grabbed a pair of her basic store pants and "studied" them to make a bigger block pattern.
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| Pants scrunched up and fashionable |
Ready to cut and sew, I go to the fabric only to rediscover the basic truth in old sayings like "measure twice, cut once." I thought that 1/2 yrd would be enough fabric on a directional fabric. I needed another 1/4 yard for my leggy daughter. But it was "make it work" day here, so I modified the pattern to have a cuff and be more of a cropped style. Then I decided to get fancy and give it full genie style legs...well they aren't perfect, but by golly they fit!
This I think is enough sewing for this week/month. Next project...summer dresses for mama and baby.
Crazy lady that I am, I decide I'm going to make my daughter the best little Princess Snow White dress ever! I just can't bring myself to buy those "official" Disney dresses from Target. Not only are they overpriced, but they are poorly constructed too. :P Yuck! No, thank you! But it isn't enough that I want to make the dress....I also have to design the pattern so I can custom make it to my daughter's "unique frame." I studied the movie, documented the colors and what I thought the fabrics should be, and then went to the fabric store and got the necessary supplies. In the time it took for her to watch the movie (about 1hr 20 min) I had drafted a pattern and cut out most of the pieces. The supplies cost less than half of the "official" costume. 
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