Sewing

Well, knitting season is over for now... I finished a green coat with matching hat for Maïa, which has actually come in handy in the past few weeks. But with summer fast approaching, I thought I'd try my hand at sewing. I have this fantastic machine that my mom got me, and it's been waiting for bigger projects than hemming pants and curtains.

So I got started on some little summer dresses for the girls (Maïa especially, whom I'm often hard-pressed to convince to wear anything but a dress). Luckily, dresses are pretty quick to whip up, once one gets the hang of pattern language — I swear, it's a whole other dialect of English. The fabrics at the store are so scrumptuous that I had a hard time choosing; I picked the most vibrant colours I could find. And at less than a metre per dress, it is an entirely affordable option. So here are my first tries:

I completed this one just last night. It took me one short evening of cutting two of these and another short evening of stitching up this one (the other will be pink with a bottom frill). Maïa wanted to wear this one today; luckily, the weather was clement enough to allow it! The fabric is a cotton. The dress itself is a simple slip-dress with ties at the shoulders: no pesky zippers or buttons. A breeze.



The other dresses that Maïa is holding are two that I made three weeks ago. It took one evening of cutting and one very long evening of sewing both dresses. At one point, I felt like I was working in a factory, only without the expertise. Luckily, my mom was staying with us, and she gave me some great tips and lots of help. This being my first project, I wasn't sure what I was doing! The fabric is a seer-sucker (no ironing!). The dress is A-line with a one-button enclosure at the back of the neck. I added the bottom trim to finish it off.



Some of the cool stitch work that my machine can do.