While We Wait

"I love decorating my home and helping others do the same.  I dream of sewing magnificent window treatments and beautiful smocked dresses for my nieces, but the truth is that I can't hem a pair of pants."


The above is a snippet of the "about me" portion of my original blog (www.mytwosons-kelley.blogspot.com).

I have always been an idea person.  I love beautiful things and I can visualize the way that things could, should or would look....but I've often struggled in the execution of those things.

I have ALWAYS loved children's clothes.  I even enjoyed dressing my boys (in those years before they started having an opinion and I always got my way:) which, if you have boys you know, isn't always a lot of fun (just because boys' fashions are so much more limited than girls).  Anyway, when I was pregnant with Jordan (our oldest....that would be, um, 19 years ago), I vowed that I was going to learn to sew.  But I never did. I was given a sewing machine back then AND I took a smocking class.  However, that little smocked bishop never became anything because I never learned to sew.  I kept that sewing machine for many years but could never even get the darn thing threaded.  Eventually, I traded it out for some custom window treatments....that someone else made.

When my nieces came along, once again, I wished that I could sew.  I could wander around a fabric store forever and always saw the sweetest things that I wished I could make.  Only now, guess what?  No sewing machine.

So....all these years later and the prospect of dressing a little girl stirred my heart again to learn to sew; so, for Mother's Day I asked for a sewing machine.  And my sweet husband, though he doubted that this idea would ever come to fruition, delivered.

One of the things that I've been seeing in the little girl fashion world are pillowcase-style dresses (not made from actual pillowcases, although I plan to try some of those as well) and I decided that this would be a good thing to begin learning with.  I purchased an inexpensive downloadable PDF tutorial which included templates for arm hole cutouts and went to town.  I'm certain I could have figured it out without purchasing this tutorial but it really has been very helpful (with dimensions for all sizes, from 12 months - 8 ); and it included a second PDF tutorial booklet for making Peasant style dresses as well (which I haven't tried.....yet).

First Attempt:

Second Attempt (planning to add a monogram):

Third Attempt:

Fourth Attempt:

Okay...so, after four, it's getting a little comical so, in addition, I am taking a beginner's sewing class at a local fabric/sewing shop (so that her wardrobe isn't exclusively pillowcase dresses:).  I had my first class yesterday and am so excited about all that I hope to learn there.  In the class, we are making a reversible A-line style child's dress/jumper.  We are also learning to applique.

So, this is one of the ways that I'm spending my "while we wait" time....and, so far, it's been a lot of fun.