Monday, March 19, 2012

Abbie's New Dress

I used this great vintage pattern and vintage fabric to make a cute little dress for Abigail.  I have put it off for quite some time because I was afraid to cut into this fabric when I knew there would be barely enough and it's much more of a Summer dress than Winter anyway.

I love how it turned out and Abby does too.


My Mom even had a dress just this style as a girl.  How fun!

I am currently obsessing about inverted box pleats and it is only natural that I came to adore this Mod 60's style, so I looked and looked for a doll dress pattern that would at least be close.  I don't mind modifying.  I did eventually find one that had the same basic shape (If you add huge puffy sleeves and a bunch of ruffles the clean Mod dress becomes turn-of-the-century victorian.....) but who wants to wait for snail-mail and besides, I prefer to get patterns at the .99 sales.

With encouragement from Adriel (It's good to have someone around who believes in you! ) I went ahead and drafted the matching doll pattern myself. It was quite different from my previous doll dresses and has had unique challenges, but eventually we got there.  Draft, tweak, draft, muslin, tweak, muslin, tweak.... Prototype.



It's not perfect yet.  We have a round or two of tweaking left, but this one works well enough as far as Abby is concerned.



Look for this vintage style and other one of a kind creations at My Sailor Girls in the coming months.

What a Joy

Oh, to be little and still think of doing the dishes as fun and exciting!  Miriam did a pretty good job for a six-year-old and it gave me a head start on the clean up that night.



Friday, March 16, 2012

What a Girl's got to do

In a fashion emergency a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do!

I insisted that Miriam had to put on a skirt over her skin tight stretch pants before heading off to school, but she needed something that "went with her outfit" (her words).  What you see here is Miriam's first sewing project on the machine.  She hemmed it, attached a bias tape casing at the top, inserted the elastic and sewed up the back seam.  Fashion disaster averted!

Yes, I hovered over her the entire time with a constant stream of " good job, slow down, move your thumb, nice and steady, well done, keep it on the fabric......."

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Almost There!

This is Miriam's Hooked on Phonics chart showing her progress through the books.  This one, for boxes 2 and 3, is all filled up.  She is well on her way to being a great reader.  She actually finished this poster up a couple of weeks ago, flew through the 4th box and is moving through the last one already.

It is dangerous to teach children to read you know.  Not only do you get the exclamations while you are driving "Mama!  That is a candy shop" but she has started to read my email over my shoulder.  That's getting old fast.  I think she feels like she has a super hero decoding power.

~ Christina

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Dress-up Crowns

I am working on a new concept to possibly add to My Sailor Girls.  These aren't perfect but I think we are getting somewhere.  I like the shabby-chic look that pinking the edges gives and it is fun to think of all the decorating possibilities.




Every little princess needs a crown and with the ribbon tie these are adjustable for a wide range of sizes. Miriam says that the girl crowns need a lot more tule and bows on the front.  There is a pink one full of tulle that I made for her, but I didn't take pictures of it.



David says that boy crowns should have cars on them.  I'm sure he is right.  A great excuse to use my Silhouette that Adriel got me for Christmas to cut out applique! 

~ Christina 

Snow Day

The kids still had to go to school, but this sure was a pretty way to wake up.



~ Christina