Monday, July 8, 2013

A Treasured Hour of Sewing...

Doing what you love isn't a privilege;
it's an obligation.
~ Barbara Sher

Probably a month ago I had everything done on these dresses except the center back seam.  I finally squeezed in a few minutes over the holiday weekend to finish them up.  (Man, did it feel great!) 

I couldn’t quite make sense of the instructions, so I decided to “go commando” and throw them out.  Here you can see one of the dresses, with the 2 back pieces laid right sides together and the upper facing on your left.  


I started by stitching the center back seam from the hem (lower edge) up to the bottom of the facing.  Then I pressed that seam open – here is the result: 


Next I turned the dress right-side out and folded the facing over so that the wrong side was exposed:  


I stitched this from the bottom of the facing to the top of the dress – I tried to line up my stitches so that they started right at the point where the back center seam ended:  


I trimmed the corner and flipped the facing back to the inside – here you can see how nicely it lines up with the center back seam on the outside:  


And on the inside:  


Before I repeated that step on the other side, I lifted the facing and added my label, so that the stitches wouldn’t show on the outside of the dress:  



Now it was time to repeat the previous steps on the other side.  This time I slid an elastic hair band into the other side – to be the button-loop – before I stitched it.  If you try this, remember that it’s the part that you can’t see at this stage that becomes the part you do see when it’s complete!  (VOE*)  ;)


Again, trim the corner before flipping right-side out:  


A nice thing about those elastic hair bands is that they come in all different colors.  


Voila!  Three adorable A-Line dresses for 3 adorable little girls!  


It was so nice to get in some sewing time!  :)


I hope you had a good sewing weekend!  :)

* VOE = Voice of Experience

6 comments:

  1. Hooray! Sending up some awesome fireworks for you!

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    1. Thanks, Gwen! It was a pretty great feeling!

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  2. I like the covered rubber band for a button loop.

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    1. Hi Ruth! One of my blog readers gave me that idea - isn't it a good one? And it's easy for Moms trying to dress squirming children!

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  3. Those little dresses are so cute!

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    1. Thanks, Mary! It is a simple pattern - but with the right fabric (and trims) you can make such cute outfits! :)

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