well, hello there

didn't mean to be blog absent for so long. the family and i were gone for two weeks on vacation for my sister's wedding and i had all these grand plans of catching up on posting my finished projects while i was away from my sewing machine... well plans were shoved aside in the flurry of wedding goings on and general sibling mayhem.

yes, that wedding. the one i expended a half-life sewing for. let me just say: the first time i saw the whole wedding party trying on their dresses and standing together in the same room (and it all looking fantastic!) i nearly cried with joy and relief! not a single alteration was necessary. the girls all looked fabulous with possibly the best fitting dresses i've ever seen on a wedding party.

not a particularly stunning picture, i got basically no good shots.
i hope the photographer fared better than i did.

i was struck by the extreme amount of talent in my family. my sister rebecca (the bride) made all the flower arrangements, my sister teresa sang and played violin, my sister monica made the wedding cake and cupcakes and i did all the dresses and jewelry. what a great family event!

the whole trip left me completely exhausted though. the wedding was in kansas and we live near boston. and we drove (3600 miles round trip!!!). after seeing the prices of plane tickets for a family of six, we decided to make a road trip of it. while i wasn't particularly thrilled at the thought of driving with four young children, it was exciting to see so many amazing sights. and the kids handled the long car rides spectacularly. not kidding! 

we visited niagra falls, ny...

the st. louis arch in missouri...

drove through the appalachian mountains in virginia...

and spent a morning sightseeing in washington, dc.

kansas was... well kansas. the 105-108 (F) daily temperatures were brutal to say the least. however, it was a small price to pay to get to see family and long-time friends.

in my last post, i promised some information on how to sew french seams for the pocket bags of my thurlow shorts (which got lots of wear on the trip and held up fabulously!) and i will post that shortly. in the meantime, i really need to get those piles of laundry under control...

—lisa g.

flower girl: the chloe dress

while i was putting the finishing touches on THE WEDDING DRESS i made up my daughter sylvia's flower girl dress in bits and pieces when i needed a break from all that hand sewing. so, yes... i sewed when i needed a break from sewing... totally normal.


for the flower girl dress i tossed around a few self-drafted ideas and sketches but nothing really hit me. it needed to "go" with the wedding and bridesmaid dresses without matching. it needed to be fancy. it needed to be fun. it needed to be easy. then i remembered the chloe dress by violette field threads which fit the bill perfectly!

chloe dress by violette field threads
oh... em... geeee... is this not the cutest thing ever?

this is such a cute dress, and while i probably could have drafted something similar myself, i'm always curious about construction details (specifically how to do that tulle skirt) and this one promised pages and pages of pictures and instructions (that and i deserved a bit of laziness). fortunately i was not disappointed! and turns out the methods i've used in the past dealing with tulle were pretty much spot on.

my daugher, sylvia is an average 6 1/2 year old in size. i wanted a closer fit than the pattern calls for and i wanted the skirt to hit her high-ish on the waist. after careful measurement of the pattern pieces i cut a size 5 and made up the lined bodice in about an hour out of scraps from the wedding dress. it fit perfect, though i needed to slice out a half inch wedge from the back bodice pieces as in a swayback adjustment. it calls for buttons down the back so i found some cheap faceted clear plastic buttons. in a way it mirrors the beading down the zip of the wedding dress, so i went with it.

the skirt from outermost layer in, is two double layers of tulle, one double layer of netting and lined with a layer of ivory taffeta. the directions have you baste together the bottom of the bodice but since i was giving this a closer fit i left a couple inches of each layer of the skirt unsewn at the waist seam to make sure she can get in and out easily. the tulle and netting was all gathered and sewn to the bodice, then the lining. i did reduce the amount of tulle/netting that was called for just so she doesn't block out everyone else in wedding pictures...

since i left the little opening in the skirt, i just folded it around the back opening of the bodice and stitched it down. now, since this is fluffy tulle it all worked out just fine. any irregularities are more than hidden. for a regular dress, this probably wouldn't look so hot (since there are multiple layers not sewn together up the back seam). then i added some bias binding to finish the inside of the skirt at the waist to keep it from being too itchy.

the sash i made out of the dark teal which will be used for the bridesmaid dresses. the directions have you sew this directly onto the front of the bodice. i opted to keep it separate, though i may tack it on at the sides for the sake of the wedding so it doesn't shift around but could still be easily removed later. i also lengthened the sash ties and angled the ends for a more dramatic bow.

fancy dress or not, she still wants to catch bugs

overall, i love this dress pattern! each time sylvia has put it on i've had to practically rip it out of her death grip. for her, this is an everyday sort of dress. and my little four year old izzie has already requested her own, naturally. doesn't every little girl need a ridiculous pouffy dress like this? it's one of those low cost, fast to make, high impact dresses. violette field threads has several other super cute kids patterns too (the emmaline dress is to die for...). if you have a little girl in your life you need to check them out!


—lisa g