Sheet dress... I hate zippers

New dress, left
previous dress, right
Both repurposed bed
sheets.

I've been reading negative reviews here and there of other crafting merchants, and it's getting to me a bit. Now I scrutinize my projects, nit picking till I no longer feel they're worthy of value to anyone other then my own children, who love their twirling dresses. A fellow angoras rabbit, spinner, knitter, and crafting enthusiast (who passed away last year) once told me to stick to making things I'll be able to use myself, because nothing ever sells very well. She made some lovely hand spun, angora wool hats, gloves, and sweaters and they would sit on her little website for ages. I try and keep her advice in mind when prioritizing my sewing and knitting projects, because it's very sage. My kids will grow up wearing a lot of handmade.

Not being prone to giving up entirely or wallowing in failure, I've decided that I could certainly use some instruction on sewing zippers. I've sort of winged it for years, but honestly, hate how they always look, and am certain there's a better way, I just haven't figured out yet. My attempts a hidden zippers never work out the way they should. The instructions on the zipper package just don't make any sense to me. I'm going to have to google this and see if I can find some tutorials online or something. I get frustrated with folks who never try or choose to turn away from the lessons they could learn. So what if that first knitting project looks awful! Try again, and the next will be better.

 There's also got to be a way to keep more seams tucked and hidden. On my dress I have almost all the major visible fabric seams turned and topstitched, but not all of them. Like the shoulder sleeve seams, and the bodice to skirt, while all on the inside, are still finished off with a tight zig zag because I couldn't figure out a way to have them hidden. A lot of garments just utilize the finish of a serger for these sorts of things, but I don't have one of those, so I zig zag the edges.

All that's left now is the sleeves

Casting off the hemline last night, I hope to finish the sleeves by the end of this week.

Knitting compulsion

This is more of a compulsive creation stemming from my desire for winter time sweater dresses for my girls. My rough guestimate on my gage was off, so instead of being a dress for my oldest, in all likelihood, this will be for my middle daughter. Sleeves will be last, and thus far I'm about waist deep, the intent to knit all the way down to below knee length.

I'm making it up as I go along... as usual, top to bottom, no seams, knitting in the round with circulars. The yarn is fisherman's wool worsted weight, natural.

Upcycled dress

Part of the reason I haven't made as many dresses lately is because I haven't needed to. Our neighbors frequently clean our their closets and grace us with a lot of clothes for the girls. The dress in this picture was made from one of the summer dresses given to us. In it's former life it was a big girl dress that was too wide up top and not long enough on the bottom. However, the fabric and print were wonderful and I had just the right yarn colors to match. 

In case you're wondering, this is not the mystery knitting project I posted a few days ago. But they will go together.

Two down, one to go

I didn't think I'd have enough fabric, but I've got a plan to eek out one more dress from this lot, so that my three girls will have matching dresses. It would have been nice if I'd finished this at the begining of Spring....but before fall will be fantastic too!

The goal now, is to finish the third dress someone's birthday at the end of this month. "just keep knitting, just keep knitting...knitting, knitting..."

Here's the second dress.

Another New dress

Inspired by some of the things I tried with the baptismal dress, I made a new dress for my oldest daughter...who has nearly grown out of all the dresses I've made for her. She's pretty tall and slender, so I needed to try something different. This is a mock turtle neck top with 3/4 length sleeves. I added cuff ruffles, a seed stitch texture, and a eyelet pattern to allow me to insert the decorative ribbon on the bodice. You're looking at nearly three months of work here, over three skeins of yarn, a spool of ribbon, and two yards of fabric. But I'm much happier with how this "big girl" dress turned out than any other I've ever tried before. Hopefully, the dresses will just keep getting better and better. Already I have ideas of what I can do to improve next time.

Fancy Nancy Dress

This dress was finished a while ago and was her birthday present. Yesterday, the girls came down stairs and had dolled all up. So I decided it was a serendipitous time to get a photo of this dress...as I'd not yet done so.

My eldest girl delighted in helping to stage the props and model's accessories. Thanks to our new greener surroundings, we got some quaint shots...and I love not having to incorporate rocks into my pictures anymore.

While it wasn't my intension per say, I realized this dress looks something like a dress you might see in the Fancy Nancy stories. It's just full of tacky frills.

Teach your children well

Each of my children spent some time having knitting lessons as part of their art program last year. It would be such a shame if I am unable to pass along the knitting skills I've achieved to my own children. Lately, though only my youngest is interested in continuing her studies under my instruction. Today, she crawled into my lap and insisted she wanted to "do some knitting." She tossed the yarn over each stitch for me for about 3/4 of a round before she was satisfied that she's practiced sufficiently. Sure, it slows my progress down a bit, but I'm more than happy to let her help one the easy rows (which require only the knit stitch anyhow).

Right now I'm working on a very special project for our new baby. I'll only give you an in-side-out preview of my work thus far. I'm working on the skirt utilizing some lace and cable patterns.

On the brink of trying something new

I'm deviating from my original plan with this knit...all of a sudden I was hit with the inspiration to try something new with the sleeves of this dress. This is another birthday present for my soon-to-be four year old.

Treasury

I've been in a couple treasuries over the last couple of years. But this one is special because it's been so long and SewMelody, who made this treasury has wanted to add me to one for a long time. I'm so honored, thanks so much! Here's her treasury; Surf and Snow