Frozen dress!

I really like the movie Frozen.  The Broadway-style songs are great, and it's an interesting change that there's no real "bad guy" (well, there is towards the end, but that's almost an aside).  My kidlet loves it, and so does every other child, it seems.  Mine thankfully wants Anna's dress (thanks, Spoonflower!) - pleated cotton and embroidered suedette I can happily do.  All the other kids, however, want Elsa's snow queen dress.  I've had three orders for one, and made a fourth for trial of fabrics and patterns.

You must pose with a crown if you're a queen.

JoAnn's wisely has all the ice-blue shiny fabrics pulled on a display table.

Size 3-4 is a bit large on a toddler.

Simplicity gets the Disney contracts, but McCall's made the pattern first, so it's called "Winter Princess," delightfully.  Other unofficial Frozen-inspired products from other companies also have silly names to avoid trademark issues - at Sparkle Skirts it's "big sister" and "little sister".

The odd underarm cape certainly met with her approval.

Hadn't made an attached cape from the yoke (rather than neck) before, and I rather like it - it doesn't pull at the neckline at all, especially as it attaches around past the arms (as in the movie, though I'll likely move it a little further out - this pattern comes perhaps a bit too far in).

The finished product, ready for Etsy if anyone wants it - if nobody wants it in a year, kidlet will have grown into it!

Made with spangly stretchy stuff, costume satin skirt, shiny organza cape, and a nice chiffon for the sleeves.

I'm glad I did the trial run - these spangles are all glued on and it did a number on my machine - needles get gummy, thread won't glide along gummy needles... I've got a metallic crinkle overlay for the other dresses!

Zipper and big placket in the back.  I may alter the placket a bit for the subsequent dresses.

One round of fray-y shiny sparkles down, three to go!

Available here.

A note on heirloom dress sizes

Baby clothes sizes are unpredictable.  Simplicity patterns for babies are sized by weight, which seems pretty accurate.  My monkey's at the smaller end of things, so in the "month" sizes of basic storebought clothes (Gap, Carter's, etc.) she's generally one size back (seventeen months now, and mostly wearing 12mo sizes, though she's starting to be too tall for the footed ones).

In Indian clothes, she's right on the mark.  Our lovely pediatrician, of Vietnamese heritage, understands genetic differences and didn't say a thing when the baby showed up at the 5th percentile for weight - when her "twin cousin" (eight hours younger, also "windy") was called underweight at over a pound heavier by a doctor unfamiliar with the concept of naturally-skinny Asian babies.  And the beautifully-fitted off-the-rack clothes we get from India bear that out (in beautiful silks and soft cottons I can't buy here... and so poorly sewn!).

The clothes from Creations by Michié must also run skinny (and looking at how nicely they fit on her non-chubby granddaughter, that may well be the case).  Because I made the Sailor Dress #106 in the 18 months size and it's a perfect fit:

Sailor Dress upside-down

Sailor Dress backwards and flipped up

Sailor Dress in motion

Well, you can't really tell, because she's reached the stage of constant motion.  

The fagoting on the collar was a challenge (never done embroidery or much free handwork), but it really makes the dress.  

I have another cut out, same size, in a lovely blue plaid.  I like her patterns - easy to make (for heirloom), very clear instructions, and an excellent finished product.  Of the three I've tried (Chery Williams, Creations by Michié, and Ginger Snaps), I like these the best.

This dress, however, Chery Williams' baby square yoke, in the six month size, still fits just fine at seventeen months.  Heirloom patterns in general run large, I've heard (perhaps so slow seamstresses don't find the kid's outgrown it before it's finished, or so it can be worn longer - I do like the four inch hems - the extra tuck I added in this dress still hasn't been taken out), so Michie may be the exception.

(And it's also a lovely pattern that I'll use several times - and already have used three times - but it's perhaps *too* well made - a fabulous lined bodice isn't necessary in Houston's heat!  I'll just finish my seams and call it a day with only one layer of thin cotton!)

Itty Bitty Baby Dresses

I made the baby several of the Itty Bitty Baby Dress from Made By Rae.  It takes two fat quarters to make a dress in the small-baby size.  They're all now too small, so I took some photos before putting them away. 

This one was my favorite - my father-in-law actually suggested the tiny pocket.  (He missed his calling in life, as a party planner and fashion designer.)  The first time she wore this, instead of just a little white shirt, and I swaddled her for sleeping...when I unwrapped her when she woke up, I was overcome by how adorable she was.  What a cute little baby!

I added extra bias binding from an old project - had exactly enough (it's actually red, not orange).  The top is quilting cotton; the skirt is a bit of black linen; and the button is a little cherry.


I like it when mothers and babies dress alike, but I haven't got the drive to make clothes for myself now that I have someone small and cute to sew for.  So, I went to my closet and found dresses I'd made myself in the past, and I'm making her ones to match.  This one actually is roughly the same style as the one I made myself, down to the shoulder ties (because the Monique dress was a bit short in the shoulders, so I had to add a bit on contrast, and made ties while I was at it).  I made the piping myself, as well.  We got so many cute comments when we wore our dresses!

This was the husband's favorite.  It was a bit larger than the others, so she wore it over a long-sleeved baby shirt at first, and it lasted the longest.  Two fat quarters and pre-made piping and bias tape.  I found it most successful if I sewed the piping to the top before doing the side seams in the skirt (unlike the instructions), for then it would be caught in the seam and stay flat.  If I wanted (I sometimes did), I could catch the lining of the bodice by hand, keeping the skirt gathers hidden on the inside.

I made two others that I don't seem to have photographed - one in blue (top) and red (skirt) bandana fabric, and one in purple stripe (top) and solid (skirt) quilting cotton.

Might have to make them again next spring a bit larger, although it'll take more than a fat quarter now.

Pajamas

Older pattern - man, am I glad the government came to their senses and changed that rule! I like making clothes for the baby, but it's nice that I can legally purchase all-cotton pajamas now!

Aristocats!

I can do many things, but they all fit in one general idea, in keeping with my engineer-brain: they're all structured.  Knitting, crochet, sewing from a pattern, cross-stitch, needlepoint? You know exactly where to put your needle or hook.  (I can make up the pattern myself, but then I work from it.)  Cooking from a recipe or especially baking?  You know exactly what to do, and there's sometimes spectacular failure (in baking) if you try to make it up.  Linguistically, I go towards Sanskrit, Latin, German - nice extremely-structured languages, not like French or Hindi.

That's not the case for everyone in my family.  My grandfather was a well-regarded watercolor painter; my mother and aunt can draw; and my sister's taken up a new craft, which benefits the baby greatly:

 

embroidery!  This is one of her onesies (a Gerber trademark, did you know?).  She also has a Houston Texans jersey onesie and a sweet one with a little dove on it.

 

Isn't her work impressive?

The baby also has a nice assortment of socks, with flowers, butterflies, and even elephants on them.

If I can't do embroidery (I can't keep it even, because I'm not told exactly where to put the needle), at least there's someone in the family who can!

Wine-colored dress

What I want:

Alison Sweeney's dress tonight on the Biggest Loser.  A-line, funky sleeves, nifty low-cut-ness, and wine colored.  Absolutely gorgeous.  I have tomorrow morning off of work... I have no money, but perhaps I might go to Target or something to see if there's something like that somewhere... No image, because there's not one online yet (heck, the show's still on!)... my second ever twitter search (first: to see if I was the only one having Blogger troubles or not a few days back) was to see if anyone else mentioned her dress; seems (so far at least) that nobody has.  Perhaps I'm crazy.

This is an excellent color, though:

Danielle

What I'm wearing today:

The Danielle, from Burdastyle. (Cropped to remove silly hair.) Went together really fast. I'm very pleased! I made it in a tiny sundress, but that was much too short to show online (wore it to Galveston on July 4, but tiny sundresses are fine then). I love the fabric -- it looks like wool, but it's actually brushed cotton, so suitable for Houston weather. Here's to Joann's sales!