A Party Dress

Miranda turns one tomorrow today!

I've been preparing a few things for the Bird's birthday party in a couple of weeks.  One thing I wanted to do was make her a cute something to wear for her party.  I had picked up the book "Weekend Sewing" by Heather Ross a little while back and fell in love with the super easy smocked sundress pattern for babies & kids.

I also love love love Heather's fabrics. Especially her latest line which is printed on double gauze (delicious) and named "Far Far Away".  Awwww :o)  I went with unicorns on lovely peachy orange.

The fun thing about the sundress is that it's essentially just a rectangle of fabric that's given shape by sewing with elastic thread (pseudo smocking).  I picked up elastic from Joann's online (Heather's site has a link to a shop selling a huge amount on a roll) and, as instructed, hand wound it onto a bobbin (yes, you sew with it in your bobbin & not as your needle thread).

It sewed super well, absolutely a dream to sew with.  And sure enough, the fabric pulls right in and it looks like smocking! Awesome!  I can see using the elastic for other things too...closures, waistbands, cuffs, decorative details, etc.

I still have to finish the bottom dress hem.  Trying to decide if I should make the dress a little shorter than average and pair it with capris.  It'd certainly be easier for Miranda to crawl in that way.  Then again, she could be walking any day...

Besides the smocked sundress, I definitely plan to try a few other patterns from the book - bloomers, pants, sundress for me...  Really, it's a rad book that's chock full of projects that actually look doable (at least for this beginner/intermediate self-taught sewer).

Next up, fabric name banner!

Oh if only there were more hours...especially napping and bedtime hours ;o)

xo, dh

ps: Nearly forgot to mention this...which tells you how deteriorated my brain has become these days...there is a video showing exactly how to make the sundress - it's Heather Ross on the Martha Stewart show actually sewing it up herself.  She's so great!!  Enjoy.