A-line dress bonanza!

I managed to get a few A-line pinafores done for Christmas.  One was for my niece and the other two pinnies were for my own girls.  I used Simplicity pattern 5489, which is about as easy as it gets.  Although you do have to do two buttonholes, the bane of my existance!

I basically followed the pattern, just made each dress a little unique. All fabric was from Spotlight - they have a fabulous range at the moment. I hope they all fit now!  :)

Sneek peek at niece's dress

Pink and purple flowers, with purple batik border

Samantha's dress

Pink with a ruffle hem

Love the buttons!

I used an iron-on butterfly motif to give it some interest

Asha's dress ...

It's all in the fabric

what else but hooty owls for Asha?  :)

Ladybug dress

Over Easter I managed to make a dress for Asha - the ladybug dress she has been asking for.  Again, just a simple A-line pinafore that I have done several times before (too easy, New Look pattern 6504) but I added an appliqued ladybug on the front.  All up, it was a day's work and Asha is thrilled with it.  I made size 3, as that is the smallest size in the pattern and I did shorten it slightly, but I probably could have still chopped 2 extra inches off the bottom.

On my sister's wise advice, I added some black dots on the wings.  I think they really do make it look much better

Ladybug size was based on a saucer from the holiday unit where we were staying at Easter!

And modelled by the happy recipient.  With this length, it should be okay for quite a few months!

The fabric came from Spotlight - I used a yellow soda denim (which has a small amount of stretch) and then a few quilting scraps to make the applique.  The dress itself sewed up very quickly, but the applique took me a few hours to do.

I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out.

First dress for 2011!

So I had all the best intentions to whip up a dress each for my two girls at the start of the new year, preferably within a couple of days.  Then I was stumped by fabric choice (I am seriously woeful at knowing what fabrics go together).  I also had great intentions of inserting flouncy sleeves into the pattern I was using (New Look pattern 6504), as well as inserting a box pleat into the skirt. And then I was stumped with how to insert the sleeves.  Mum was visiting me for a few days, so she helped me adapt the pattern (thanks Mum, couldn't have done it without you!).  I ended up ditching the sleeve idea, but we did managed to alter the pattern to include a box pleat in the skirt with a contrasting fabric.

I also had a go at doing some applique.  I have never attempted it before, so I was a bit nervous.  On advice from some other sewers (thanks EBers!), I used vlisoflix to attach the applique fabric.  I found out afterwards that I should have used a stabiliser underneath it all when I was doing the applique as that would have stopped the puckering.  It looks okay, but the stabiliser would have been good.  And I did get better as I did it.  I did the top applique first and it definitely looks rougher than the applique done on the skirt (probably should have done it the other way around).

Anyway, although I am rusty, I finally finished it.  Here it is! 

Samantha's pink 60's style dress!

The skirt applique (the better one)

Edge-stitching on the yoke top

The yoke



Yoke finish on the inside (no scratchy seams to bother Samantha)


Hopefully Samantha will love it.  I'll try to get a photo when Samantha wears it first.

Now to do Asha's dress ... and then a few potholders are beckoning ....

Edited to add a couple of photos with Samantha wearing the dress -

Feeling groovy!

And Asha was all excited too.  :)