Child's Dress #0501 Take 2!

 So remember in the last post where I said I would make this dress for my SP? Judging by the measurements, my hubby printed  the pattern for me with 2 pages on 1 piece of paper. It fit her measurements perfectly! I excitedly cut it out and got both dresses set up ready to sew. Fortunately, I decided to try to fit it to her before really getting into this dress. I say fortunately, because she keeps growing! The lining was fitting such that she would be able to wear the dress once before she out grew it. I don't know about anyone else, but if I'm going to make something (especially for my kids), they better wear and fit it more than once! After the frustrations of the other dress, I decided to make some alterations to this one to be more comfortable for her and fit better. I discarded the chemisette, the lining, the skirt, the belt/waistband and the inner sleeve. All that's left is the upper and lower bodice, the skirt flounce, flounce band, and outer sleeve. Once I got down to all of that, it came together very easily and quickly. I did a button placket on the back for a closure, the same way as before. 

She didn't really care about pictures and was all smiles until the camera came out. Oh and this is Dress #0501 for the 1912 VPLL project. I'm loving this!

Child's Dress #0501

This is Dress #0501, for the 1912 VPLL project. This project caught my eye because the sizing on it said 3-5 years old. My oldest daughter, here-to-after known as PIT (princess in training), is tall and skinny. Around the waist she measures as a size 2 or 3 and height-wise she measures as a 5 or 6. I figured by adding some length to the skirt layer (only 2 inches) and an extra inch to the skirt flounce, it would fit and for a while as well.

Once I got the pattern, I printed it and went to my stash. The pattern called for gingham and I do have some gingham that I normally use for trims or coordinating extras if needed. I found a pretty green in different size checks and pulled that out. Then, what to my surprise, but the next time I'm in Joann's getting fabric for Teacher Appreciation gifts, I find this really cute and fun fabric that has flowers all over it and solids to go with it. Immediately my PIT looks at me and says, "Mommy, don't forget kindergarten graduation is next week." You can tell where she is headed with this right? Yep, she NEEDED a new dress and this was the fabric for it and it WAS going to be done in a week.

Well, much to my hubby's chagrin, we bought the floral and a pink and a purple, because if PIT gets a dress than SP (Sweet Princess-my 4 month old) needs one too, right? And that means I can experiment with a smaller size as well and that just helps me with making the big one too, right? At least that's what my brain was saying to me.

 There were definitely some new terms to me in the instructions of this pattern. I had never heard of a chemisette or the idea of finishing a seam and then laying it over the raw edge of the other part and then stitching it down. Also this part here (the piece pinned so thoroughly) scared my hubby with how many pins I had to use to curve a simple piece of bias. It curved and fit, it just had me tearing my hair out for about an hour because I hate to iron and that seemed to be the only way to get it to fit.

The skirt flounce had a band sewn to it. The instructions called for the band to be sewn one end and then have the other side finished once the whole dress was put together to the "desired length". Well, I know what my finished length would be and the band was going to be folded in half, so I used this technique that I learned sewing pillowcases together.  Put the two pieces of fabric together right sides facing, then bring the other side of the band up and over the flounce piece and pin it into place, so the wrong sides of the band are out and you have 3 layers pinned together-both sides of the band and one side of the flounce. Sew this seam and then turn it right side out through the side seams. Press or topstitch this seam.
   

Here is her first fitting. I was devastated. That stupid bottom yoke piece was all over the place. And I do mean ALL over. This is just roughly pinning everything together to get a general idea of how it's going to fit. I really like the sleeves, the double layer looks kind of cool and the skirt looks great. But that bodice is supposed to be gathered into the lining and then sewn into the skirt and the belt goes over that. It's supposed to be gathered horizontally and laterally into the lining and sewn into the lining still at the neckline. This is 2 days before graduation and I  gave up for a day. I couldn't do it. I just could not bring myself to work on this dress for a whole day. I checked in on Facebook and the blog and got some words of encouragement and that it was ok to modify the pattern. I was trying to make it as authentic as possible, but that went out the window as quick as a wink. I ended up cutting about 8 inches off of the lower bodice so it was just 1 inch longer than the lining.

Come back a day later and I'm a little bit more ready for this challenge. I put the neckline together with a piping insert and a zipper because I was at crunch time. I opted to sew the belt in as a waistband and fore go the buttons and trims, just so it would be done on time. I did it! Well, almost (serging the edges and topstitching weren't done on half the seams). I pulled it off the sewing machine at 12:50 and was cutting loose threads in the car on the way to the ceremony that started at 1:00. I had put a temporary zipper in to finish the back-I knew I didn't have time for anything else-and she quickly changed. With baited breath we slip it over her head, and then, oh no, was that the dreaded sound of a stitch being torn? Quickly stop her wiggling and check the back-oh it's ok, just an extra stitch next to the bottom of the zipper ripped. We finish wiggling down into place, she turns for the zipper to be done up, but then she immediately starts to complain about the neckline-it's too tight! we slide the zipper down about an inch and a half and just tuck the top edge corners down under so it looks intentional. She was so pleased (and then promptly put her kindergarten shirt over the dress). I took lots of pictures and then took her out to the playground for some more fun shots. She says it's great! We just need to fix that darn neckline.

Here she is on the playground totally ecstatic that mommy finished on time.

 Playing around

This was the next week, after I took the zipper out and added a bias placket for buttons to give some extra space at the neckline. It still looks a little bit like something is missing. I'm thinking about making some rolled fabric flowers and making a pin to be worn like a brooch or on the wasit band.

All about me and an intro to the VPLL

 Welcome to my world. We welcome the insane, curious, interesting, travelers through, stayers-on, and just about everyone else that doesn't cover. And yes, we are all a little bit insane here, as I told someone the other day-you have to be a little bit insane to even consider being a parent, let alone a parent of 5-but it is so worth it.

I feel like I need to give an introduction to me for everyone knew to this blog. I am a mom. First and
foremost, that is the most important thing to me, that I am a mom and wife. I have one amazing husband and 5 kids-3 boys and 2 girls (the oldest is almost 8 years old and the youngest is 4 months old). I love to do
all sorts of crafty things during my free-time (what little there is of that), but it is also my reward and
relaxing time at the end of the day for doing certain chores/goals for that day. So if there is a picture of any project or idea you would like further instructions for, feel free to ask, it might take me a while to go back and take pictures of them or do them again, but I am almost always willing to try or have the camera handy to fully illustrate what I've done. You'll learn a lot more as we progress through this journey together and I will also be posting stuff about some of the other projects going on in my life here as well. Remind me
to post pics of tye-dieing with sharpies and snowman oreos and oreo turkeys and all of that other fun
stuff from the holidays and the kid involved teacher gifts for end of year and Christmas too.

I first found this project through a Facebook page, "Martha Pullen"'s I think, or was it
"Stitch, Craft, Create"? Anyway, I saw the link for it and was intrigued by the idea behind
sewing vintage patterns, let alone the challenge of sewing without instructions on some of them
and also having to do some alterations on them too. I am mostly a self-taught seamstress. I
started sewing 7 1/2 years ago when I quit working to give birth to my first son. I started
out with a "Sewing for Dummies" pattern my husband had picked out for me. I learned how to
do things by reading a bunch of different patterns and then started finding old sewing manuals.
When my second child was a girl, I knew I was definitely in for a lot of fun-there are so many more
patterns for gir's than boys.


So for everyone else curious about this project go to this webpage: 1912 VPLL and it will explain a little bit more about the project. But basically, they are releasing patterns from 1912 and a bunch of seamstresses from around the world are sewing these patterns either true to vintage or updating them and altering them.