Sew-er's Block

I love where I am right now with my sewing.  For several weeks before I got involved with Dress A Girl I had a serious case of sew-er’s block.  I would walk in my new sewing room AND it just wasn’t there.  Sewing and designing kids clothes is my passion so it was a bit of a desperate feeling when I lost my motivation.  I worried about this a lot.

Ever since I heard about Dress A Girl but I have felt energized.  I am not kidding when I say I am designing in my head all the time, when I’m doing all the mundane chores of daily living but I am sewing in my mind.

It was a beautiful day today.  I worked outside, re-potted my tomatoes, cut out all the dresses I plan on making tomorrow.

One Shirt- Two Dresses

Last week I lucked out and found a XXL Eddie Bauer shirt at the Goodwill. It is a beautiful piece of fabric…green and blue check. I cut the sleeves off and tossed them to the side and laid out a little dress using the shirt button band on the front of the dress. I found a great red gingham shirt and cut it into bias strips for the ties and I was good to go.

When I finished up the dress, and was clearing off my table it struck me that there was enough fabric in the sleeves to make a second dress. So I cut the cuffs off the sleeves and cut them up the side so that they laid open. I ended up with a dress front and back with a sleeve placket a little off center. The curve of the top of the sleeve made a nice curve on the hem.

I had to cut a little strip to run the elastic through, I put a piece of bias tape around the curved hem.

Aren’t they just the cutest little dresses?

Slow Poke Karen

I am sitting here with two dresses cut out and one put together and I worked all afternoon! I AM really slow.

Recently I have been suffering from a little ‘dress-envy.’ Look at all these sew-er’s AND all of their beautiful dresses! How will I ever speed up production?

I confess I am a perfectionist that certainly doesn‘t help. I do change the color of the thread a lot, I tear out seams, and go back and hand sew little edges that I missed with my sewing machine.

Every night when I turn out the lights, sewing machine included, I promise myself that tomorrow I will push myself just a little harder to make some serious time with my sewing AND everyday about mid-afternoon I realize that I am poking along “maybe tomorrow” I tell myself.

On Saturday, Les Fabriques fabric store is having an Open House. I'm looking forward to meeting lots of interesting people AND maybe some speedy sew-ers.  I could use a few tips to speed up production.

WOOF WOOF

Today I went to a fabric store to pick up a few notions…that’s all!  A sweet woman, kind of shy approached me “would you like my 25% off coupon, I’m not going to use it.” I felt like she had handed me a sack of gold! I wanted to reach out and give her a bear hug.

Now not only did I have enough money to cover the contents of my cart, I had even more money to spend. Notice how 25% means more to spend rather than money to save? :^) So I purchased even more thread and elastic.

And for those of you who heard me complain about my Simplicity bias tape maker (in an earlier post) I am going to take a lesson from a friend on how to “make fabulous bias tape” with my bias tape maker.

I will go with an open mind. I promise. I am of the firm belief that you can teach an old dog new tricks.  WOOF WOOF

Heart Tags & Hem Trim

A couple of days ago Sean (my son Jon's friend) posted photos of the Kingdom of Tonga on Facebook. Sean is in the Peace Corps.  In one of photos, two little girls are posing with Sean for a photo…immediately I began to think about Dress A Girl. I wrote to Sean’s mother to ask about the Tongan children in the photo. Do they need dresses? She has written to her son Sean to find out. Stay tuned…

Meanwhile….

I found the sweetest little heart tags that sew neatly into the side seam at the hem or on the side of a pocket. The tags folds in half so there is a heart on each side. I think they’re perfect. I found them on eBay. I have also been playing around with the top stitching on the hem to see if I could cover it up. I tried rick rack, fancy machine stitching, and bias trim. I really like the bias trim.

I just heard that it’s going to snow this weekend. How can that be?  It was eighty two days ago!  Oh well back to the refuge of my warm little sewing room.

Bias Tape Folder $6... Ralph Lauren Sheet...$1 Cute Pillowcase Dress...Priceless!

Call me old fashioned but I like to make my own bias tape. The other day while I was looking for something to spend my money on I purchased one of those bias tape makers by Clover.

I have an electric one by Simplicity but we have a love/hate relationship. It wants to choose the fabric every time we work together. BUT when I want to choose the fabric it revolts by jamming up which requires a fast thinking and a speedy rescue. In theory it is a great idea however for now it makes a good doorstop for my sewing room. But I digress.

Last week there was a big sheet sale at our local Goodwill…$1.00 each. I found a pretty blue and white striped Ralph Lauren sheet blue that I cut into stacks of 2” strips. ~drum roll~ I stuck a strip in to the little Clover tape folder and off I went.

While I was cheering myself on….my husband wandered in. He's a nice guy and is always ready to lend a helping hand...so he held the unfolded strip and directed it into the tape folder while I sprayed and ironed. 

I give this little gadget a thumbs up.

I may eventually learn to love my Simplicity bias tape maker but for now I don't have time to argue with it.

There’s a nice breeze today and I want to keep my door open so I can catch it. :^) Where’s that doorstop?

Have a peace-filled weekend my friends.

Confession

One of the things that I love the most about Dress A Girl is the simplicity of the pillowcase dress. All you need is a pillowcase, a bit of elastic, and some ribbon and voila a cute little dress!

I was so taken by my first pillowcase dress that I wanted to make another one AND I did!  I put my precious little dresses on hangers and hung them so that when I walked past my sewing room I could glance in and admire them. I really did!

Sheets, Shirts & Tees

On the way home from my mother 86^th birthday lunch today I stopped by the Goodwill. It has become one of my favorite places to shop. In fact I haven't been in a department store for over a year since I discovered  the Goodwill.

Today I splurged... I bought 7 sheets $1.00 each (pink, 2 blue, 2 white, pink & lime striped, stars) and one of them was still in the package! I can make at least 4 dresses out of each sheet (28 dresses).

I also bought 5 darling t-shirts $2.00 each (5 t-shirt dresses), 5 striped men’s shirts $3.50 each, which will make (10 dresses).
That’s 50 upcycled earth friendly dresses for $38.00. Less than $1.00 per dress. What a deal!

19,192 Dresses

Hi my name is Karen. I design and sew upcycled kids clothing, but best of all I work with a program called Dress A Girl Around the World.

One sentence on the Dress A Girl website grabbed my attention “Imagine a World Where Every Little Girl Owns at Least One Dress…And what if that dress was made by you!” “Awesome” I said outloud. “Sign me up.”

To date Dress A Girl has delivered an amazing 19,192 dresses to 36 countries.

Please consider sponsering a Dress A Girl event or Sew-Along with your friends, family, club, or church. 

I can't wait to get started...how about you?

http://www.dressagirlaroundtheworld.com/