Thursday, January 30, 2014

Winter sewing also!


Their school had a Father-daughter dance planned -- H got very excited that it was on his birthday, and made reservation in record time, requested the day off, and rented a suit. So of course I must pull out all the stops for K's dress. This is another beautiful velour knit, but thinner than the raspberry one... it looks like crushed velvet and is very very soft, almost liquid in texture.
Drafted from the sloper for knits, with 3/4 sleeves with a slight puff shoulder (my/K's preferred style really, why don't they make prettier dresses with sleeves?) and a full 42" circle skirt. This twirls amazingly, a very very important thing for a dance.
It needed something extra, so I made a little flower from white satin and silver trimmings from a few sewing projects for the dance studio for her waist, and another for her hair. 
They both felt and looked super-special!

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Winter sewing.... Christmas outfits!

yes, I know I've been a terrible blogger. for all 2 of you out there. 


I had long wanted to make P a suit, and finally got around to it for their Christmas pageant... washable brown wool, Burda pattern. I didn't have enough time to make a new shirt for the pageant, so he wore the one I made for Friday masses. He has a bowtie made from plaid taffeta. (The dark orange shirt got made the week after, so he wore it to school on dress-down day.)
Franny's dress is a beautiful raspberry velour knit, with an organza underskirt, drafted freely from her bodice block. It has long puff-shoulder sleeves and a petal collar from the same taffeta, and silver snaps down the front. (I'm a dork because I bought these great grey tights from Hanna Andersson and silver shoes even before I made the dress.)
I'm so happy that I planned these outfits for them, because pageant day dawned 13 degrees F. All the other kids were cold (especially the girls) but P and K were toasty, even when we walked to the train.