Navy and Red Blake Dress

Here is a cute dress I made in September 2019 using fabric from the free stash I was given. I used VFT's Blake pattern. It was a pretty simple and quick dress to sew up. I think it turned out adorable, but unfortunately Eesa only wore it a couple times and it has hung in her closet, untouched for the better part of this year. I hope I can sell it. I can't figure out what's not to like about this dress. Sometimes its hit or miss with this girl!

Striped Romper

A neighbor down the street gave me a large bag of fabric, and a couple of sewing patterns. Eesa had a blast laying out all the fabrics and matching them with her hairbows.  Silly girl. I've only made a couple of outfits for her from this fabric stash; the rest I still have. I'm sure someday I'll figure out what to do with the rest. The first thing I made a romper (August 2019), and I used one of the patterns that was gifted along with the fabric. The romper was pretty easy to make, I can't remember what brand the pattern was (it was a paper pattern and not a pdf). I didn't make too many alterations to it other that adding an inch to the waist and ruffle on the short's hem. Eesa wore this romper fairly often, until she grew out of it about a year later. 

 

Teal Tank Dress/boy's oxford shirt

Here's another cute dress that I just love so much! I made this in June of 2019. This is the Gwen dress from VFT, I used this same pattern to make some tops. I had fun making this dress. My (new-ish) machine has lots of fun embroidery stitches, and I enjoyed making use of one of them for this dress. My machine is pretty adept at sewing button holes too, so it wasn't too painful making all those button holes. The back is stretchy, so we don't even need to bother actually using the buttons, they're just for looks even though technically they are functional. What else to say about this dress? It has been used for a wedding reception and a portrait session, so I'd say this is a dress worth posting about! I used some cotton-poly fabric (I think its a quality broadcloth) I found at Goodwill, I also made little brother a shirt using the same fabric, so they could match at the reception and for their portraits.

 

A close-up of the buttons and embroidery trim

The pockets are so fun!

She's just too cute in this dress!

The dress in action at her aunt's wedding reception

She wore this dress for her portraits over a year later...you can see she grew a little!

And here's the boy's oxford shirt to match! That's the only picture I could find of him wearing it! It's your basic oxford shirt, pattern from Peek-A-Boo Pattern Shop.

Flower Girl/Baptism Dress

Here is a very special dress! In fact, it's double-special! This dress was Eesa's Baptism dress AND her flower girl dress for her aunt's wedding. I took a lot of time in planning this dress. I looked at soooo many flower girl and baptism dresses, but really the dress I wanted was mostly in my head, although I did find one picture that closely resembled what I was picturing in my mind, but unfortunately I can't find that photo. Anyway I bought the materials for the dress in April 2019 at Joann's. I had to ask for help for finding the white satin fabric. I made sure it was the best quality I could find, which luckily wasn't too much deal since I was only using it for the bodice. For the skirt, I found the perfect lace at Joann's that was finished at the bottom. Then I bought a bolt of tulle, which was 20 yards worth. The total cost added up to only $40! 

I used Violette Field Thread's Harlow pattern for the bodice, because I wanted the princess cut. I used the cap sleeve pattern option (yep, its a separate pattern). For the skirt, I would like to say I used the Penelope pattern, but I diverged from it so much that I basically used my own, though I did rely on some measurements from the pattern. The bodice came together nicely without a hitch. I used my ruffle foot attachment to sew the tulle onto some basic cotton-poly fabric that I already had in my stash. The ruffle foot made sewing the tulle so much faster and easier! I was actually surprised how quickly the skirt came together, especially with all those tulle layers! It was also nice that the lace didn't need to be hemmed. All that was left was to sew the skirt to the bodice! Oh, and sew buttons and make button holes. I used pearl shank buttons that I found at Walmart for the back enclosure (sorry I didn't take a picture of the back), which matched perfectly. 

When I had Eesa put the dress on for the very first time, she looked just like a princess! To add to that effect, I had bought a hoop skirt (years prior on Amazon), pearl earrings, and I made a delicate necklace featuring glass pearls and Swarovski crystals, a $3 white rosette hairclip I found at Walmart, and last but not least, a sparkly bridal sash from Amazon, which I had to trim.

Here are the pictures, her dress sure was a hit! She still wears her dress occasionally to church. I don't plan on selling the dress, I suppose I'll keep it as an heirloom forever.

The bodice. My anxiety was pretty high when handling it--I didn't want to snag it or maim it in anyway! 

You know you have a full skirt goin' on when it can "stand" on its own!

Trying it on in my messy sewing room