Star Wars Christmas!

I bought this fabric I believe 2-3 years ago. My only regret is not buying enough of the Star Wars Christmas ornament print to make myself PJ pants with it. But it was the right thing to sacrifice it for my niece, as intended. And I love how the purple scroll print goes with the Star Wars.

This is the Madison/Dolly Madison pattern from Made for Mermaids.

Since I just made her the Nemo dresses over the summer, I knew for sure which size would work. (I also asked my sister-in-law how much room she had in them, since I really want this to work for next Christmas as well!) This is a size 10, roughly tea length (because I didn't have enough fabric), with a wider ruffle to make up a little of the length. I used the purple print for straps, waist piping (I make my own, obviously), and bottom ruffle. 

I think you can see the waistline piping detail a little better in this progress photo....

The doll dress is maxi length.

 I love how it turned out, and I know she will, too! My only quibble is that I think the purple print blends a little much with the waist piping. In this particular case, it might have been a little better to use a different fabric for the piping or do a waist ruffle instead. But I do think it's more obvious in person.

Twirly dresses!

So once upon a time, almost three years ago, I made my niece a twirly dress. It was the Madison pattern from Made for Mermaids, and there's the Dolly Madison matching pattern for 15 or 18" dolls. (My niece has an 18" Our Generation doll from Target.) I made the prototype out of random bright fabric I had on hand, intending to then make the next ones probably from Nemo fabric, and then who knows after that.....But my serger didn't want to play nicely with making ruffles, and so I had to hand gather miles of ruffles, and I never got past the prototype, even though she loved it. 

But then a few months ago I got a message that her twirly dress was getting too small, and she was sad and wanted a new one. Which made me decide that, yes, I should finally get around to that. But I still put it off a bit, and then finally bit the bullet. It was at this crazy point that I decided to make TWO Nemo dresses instead of trying to decide which print to use for the bodice vs the skirt. Thank goodness my serger decided to give me a break and produce awesome ruffles this time!

These are size ten, midway between tea and maxi-length (I think I just went maxi on the doll dresses), and I tried out the piping instead of waist ruffle. I really like how the piping looks, but I'll ask my niece what she thinks before another one appears.

I do my ruffles double layer so I can avoid hemming them. ;) I also think it gives a bit more weight to the hem, so that maybe they won't flip up as much. I really like how these turned out and hope my nieces loves them!

Twirly dresses!

My niece loves to twirl, and she loves her aunt-made clothes.  And she loves her doll.  So I got a request for clothes that have matching doll clothes.  And I had every intention of getting these done much sooner, but life got in the way, and the sewing mojo vanished.  Doing the baby sling got it going, however, and I finished these prototypes.

I had gone through different pattern websites and run some ideas by my sister-in-law.  Some passed muster, some didn't.  This one did, and I hope my niece approves.  This is a prototype, to see if she likes it and how the sizing is before I use "new" fabric.  I used long held stash fabric.  The stars/lightning print was either a JAF or WM find when Thing 2 was a baby, because I remember thinking about using it for a diaper bag.  The green broadcloth happened to be in my stash, which was great, since it goes well.  I also didn't realize until later that there's totally a watermelon vibe going on here, but that's fine since it's summer.

This is a size 6 - tea length, with the waist ruffle.  Next time, I plan to try piping at the waist instead of a ruffle.  Just for kicks.