I make a handful of business trips to London every year and on my most recent trip, I stopped in at Liberty. It's a big department store with a big reputation. I think a long time ago it used to be a crafter's dream, but now it's mostly really high end stuff that doesn't always appeal to me. The yarn selection is limited to Rowan Yarns and while I love them, my stash is sufficient, and mostly high end. And while my fabric stash is also sufficient, it's only recently that I've discovered garment quality fabric outside of Joann's. And Liberty fabrics are stunning - visually, although I don't actually like busy little florals, and in a tactile sense - the lawn is famous for a reason. On this trip I ran into a print called "Queue for the Zoo" and picked up a yard for my animal obsessed Puppy. Then I ended up having a meeting scheduled in Washington, DC and the timing was such that if I took some extra leave, the nanny could go get some dental work taken care of and the Puppy and I could enjoy a little together time, including a visit to the National Zoo, of course.
Naturally, the dress needed to be made. I wanted to make something cute and flowy, but didn't want to deal with gathering and the like, so I went with a dress I'd seen online a few times, Sunki, by Figgy's. Everyone who made it online seemed to love it and it looked really neat. I'll admit I'm not the most proficient seamstress, but I didn't love the pattern so much.
Those green side panels are what makes the dress, and the directions for them are a mess. The pattern piece and the diagram in the directions are not shaped the same, which led me to spend quite some time looking at the pdf to be sure there wasn't something I'd missed. Then I went looking for a tutorial and the best one I could find just said something along the lines of "I just manipulated the fabric so that it fit." So that's what I did, and it turned out okay after several attempts, but there's still a tuck in the top of the right pocket/panel because I just couldn't bear to rip again for something that was going onto a toddler body in constant motion. The second panel turned out better and if I make the dress again, it will be less frustrating. Still - I don't think it's too much to ask for the drawing to match the actual pattern piece. That's not hand holding, that's accuracy. The 2T is wide on the Puppy, but the 18M woulnd't have fit for long, so I don't mind. I did chop off a whole lot of length for my tiny girl.
She happily wears the dress for one reason...ELEPHANTS! That's her signing Elephant in ASL after she got to see her first one in person. She makes the sign (and trumpets like a tiny elephant) whenever she sees the dress. It was a bit warm for leggings, but my enthusiastic girl was running out of skin on her knees from several big tumbles, and I knew she'd be rushing about like a crazy person, so I added some protection for the day.
This was my first invisible zipper and I either did not iron the zipper flat enough, or the cheapo invisible zippers I bought were just not great (you get what you pay for). Still, it works, it's just not invisible. We could have sat here all day staring at the waterfall. This was the only nice day of our trip, it rained like mad the other days, including the day we ran the 5K in honor of Tee. The group of us thought it was the perfect way to honor our friend...a run, cheering for all the other runners from the finish line, dancing in the event area after the race ended, and a Starbucks stop before going our separate ways. We'd rather be doing it with her, but if we can no longer do so, then at least we can do it right for her.
Love the elephants. There was a time when I used to sew for my little ones. I remember making the triplets pants out of the maternity “tents” because the latter had so much fabric. The thing about sewing is that you need to enjoy the process; otherwise it’s not worth it and I enjoy the process of knitting more.
Posted by: Leigh | May 30, 2018 at 07:27 AM
I knit when I fly, which is quite often, but even baby sweaters in tiny yarn takes a while. I've been sewing while I'm home because it's a little more instant gratification even when I do crazy things like underline a toddler dress.
Posted by: Shanti | May 31, 2018 at 09:58 AM