Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Christmas Dresses

I decided to make Avery's Christmas dress this year.  I bought a pattern and fabric from Joann's.  This would be my first attempt to make clothing from a pattern.  For my bride's maids I  made makeup bags using an Amy Butler pattern (1st time EVER following a pattern).  They turned out well, but it was a little frustrating since I'm a sewing novice and don't understand all the sewing lingo. The dress pattern was a little difficult but I was able to figure it out by looking things up on the web.  I chose a pretty cranberry red taffeta, white ribbon for the waist and a pre-made white ribbon flower to pin to the waist.  I also added a top sheer fabric with gold and reflective specks to the skirt.
 
 
I think it turned out nice if you aren't looking real close.  After Christmas Eve, I had to bust Avery free from the dress!  The zipper had opened below the pull part and so it wouldn't zip down.  Me, Grandma and Papa all tried to get the zipper to budge, but it wouldn't.  Avery was getting more and more upset, so mommy saved the day...I grabbed both sides of the zipper and pulled with all my might.  The zipper broke open and Avery was free.  Not sure I'll fix the zipper.  The dress was only meant for Christmas and soon she'll out grow it.

Another dress! 

I went thrifting for some material to make some dresses etc. for Avery and I found a women's red sweater in nice condition.  An idea popped in my head!  I got the idea from three other crafty ladies from the blog world. FIRST, from Ashley (Make It and Love It) I took inspiration from her tutorial on re-purposing a sweater to a sweater dress found here; SECOND, from Disney (Ruffles and Stuff) I took inspiration from her Winter Wonderland dress that she made for her cutie and THIRD, from Dana (MADE) I took some inspiration from her Turkey Dressing Ruffled Skirt pattern that I had purchased.  And this is what I came up with. . . . .
Happy Girl!




I used a red T-shirt and a white T-shirt to make the bottom tiers of the skirt. Then I added some white chiffon to the white tier to give it some fun feminine fluffiness. (That's fun to say.)  Last I got the idea to use some of the ruffled chiffon and make snowflakes to attach to the front.  Not sure that idea comes across to others when they see it, but I still like it.  This dress was more comfy then her fancy-so-fancy Christmas Eve dress.  For some reason I think I liked this one the best.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Baby Snow Pants




It was a snow day. . . time for a crafty project. 

Avery needs to have her first experience with snow, but she doesn’t have anything waterproof.  That got me thinking, I have some old snowboarding pants that I could cut up!  I just received some really nice “new to me” snowboarding pants from my good friend Allison.  Thanks again Allison! So I didn’t mind cutting up my old ones.

My old snowboarding pants



I used a pair of Avery's sweats for the pattern and just cut it out around the crotch so that I wouldn't have to sew that part.  I sewed it all up in about 45-60 minutes.  I pulled the elastic string out of the old pants and made and elastic waist on the new pants.

Cute little pants

They fit!  Now we have to test them in the next soft snow.
Yay!  I'm proud of my little snow pants.


~Kristie