Last minute, pre-vacation sewing panic!

Lately, R has been incredibly picky about clothing. Specifically, it seems like she has to have the minimum amount of material actually touching her body. This usually results in huge getting-dressed battles every morning.

We are about to leave on vacation to visit relatives in Central Ontario, which is very hot and humid at this time of the year. I have absolutely no desire to duke it out with her every morning about clothes, so I decided to whip her up a dress or two from a pattern that is basically a sack with shoulder straps.

I've sewn this pattern for her twice before and it used to be a winner, except for some reason the elastic around the arm was now bothering her (although it is not too tight, but what can you do). So I swapped out the sleeve for a ruffle and now it's her favourite thing.

I started cutting out dress #2 from this pattern, and then realized I had heaps of this particular fabric grabbed from my stash, and how CUTE it would be for R and her baby cousin E to have matching summer dresses. Of course, I decided this yesterday; we are leaving early Wed morning and I haven't even started packing yet. Panic!

So I dig through my stash of patterns and come across a baby sun dress pattern from 1991. I think this must have been inherited from my mom as I don't recall it at all. 

Ok, so not the most modern thing every but the sun dress is pretty cute and it was literally the only pattern I had that would work for a 1 year old. Plus, a ruffly sun dress on a cute baby in the summer? ADORABLE!

The end result: 2 sun dresses that aren't really matchy-matchy but will hopefully result in some cute photos of R and E together. The fabric isn't wouldn't be my first choice, but R chose it out of my stash and all little girls love pink butterflies and flowers.

I also finished up my first ever vintage sewing project for myself - Butterick 3375 circa about 1964, judging from the hair and the price on the pattern. (Photo taken with my iPhone Hipstamatic camera for true vintage-ness!)

I'd like to point out that I really wish I had a dress form, as this looks much better on me then hanging all droopy on a hanger. But I just don't have time to model this right now!  This was a trial run with some left-over fabric I had in my stash - a black and white graphic print. 

The pattern turned out very similar looking to the pattern envelope, although I eliminated the elastic band at the bottom hem as I figured I have enough fluff there without it. One other thing that is interesting is that the armholes seem to be much smaller than modern patterns. It fits, but it is definitely a different fit than a modern sleeveless blouse. 

I will definitely wear this top this summer and it will probably make it into my suitcase tonight. I don't know if I would make it again but it was definitely a nice, simple way to get over my phobia about cutting into my vintage patterns.

Bye folks! My next post will likely be in about 2 weeks.

Heather