Lydia's First Communion

Earth Angel from AS&E issue 46.  

It is a beautiful ankle length dress smocked to the waist.  Clusters of beads embellish the smocking and the high yoke as well as the scalloped hemline.

The pattern called for a bunch of bullion roses, but we really wanted beads instead.  The neckline is also beaded and I added a beaded cross too.

I also made the veil out of the same silk and beads.

I especially like the scalloped sleeves and hemline.

It was a beautiful day and she looked lovely.

Mermaid Tail Blanket

Lattice Back Dress

Leggings

Mary's Confirmation!

It is so hard to find appropriate clothes for young girls, so I decided to sew a dress for Mary to wear on her Confirmation.  The pattern is Simplicity 1212.   She picked out a beautiful lavender satin from JoAnn's.  I used couture techniques and underlined the dress with silk organza.  I lined it with the Casa lining from JoAnns in a shade slightly darker than the Casa Satin.  To add a little detail I sewed a piece of trim that matched her dress perfectly.  And I dressed up the neckline with beads I had left over from my dress that I sewed in December.  I think she looked so sweet....like a 14 year old should!

My New Dress!

I am so excited that I FINALLY managed to make myself a nice dress!  I used my Sure Fit Designs blueprint to make a dress based on New Look 6243.  I have always had trouble fitting commercial patterns to myself, and now with the help of my blueprint from SFD I can now sew for myself!

I didn't want to invest a lot of money in this dress because I wasn't sure I could really do it.  So the fabric is the Casa collection from JoAnn's and I bought it with a 60% coupon!  The dress is Casa crepe and the yoke is Casa chiffon.  I even used the Casa matching lining.  I was surprised how nice it actually was to work with and wear.  It certainly isn't silk crepe de chine, which I wanted to use for my lining, but it worked just fine and cost just a smidge.

I did underline the dress with silk organza, though.  I used the techniques I learned in the Crafty couture class by Susan Khalje and it was a pleasure to sew.  I beaded the seamlines on the front and back yoke as well as the seam lines on the waist band piece.

I also made a matching wrap using the Casa satin and this tutorial
Satin stole

I used 3 different glass bugle beads; dark plum, abalone, and amethyst.  It gave it just the right amount of bling.

Swim Shirts

I finally got around to sewing up a bunch of Kwik Sew swim shirts for my children.  They have been in desperate need of these and I didn't want to spend a ton of money on purchasing shirts.  So I used pattern 2881 for the older ones and pattern 2888 for the younger ones.  They all loved them!  Especially the two different colors.

Pattern 2881 did not come with long sleeves, so I had to draft those.  But no big deal.  I am sure I will be making many more.