FO: Butterick 6004 for Lissy

Just ignore the dirty dishes, too busy sewing!

I don't sew for Felicity as often as I'd like to, which is a shame because she really loves to show off her clothes.  As soon as I open the front door to the postman she's right there beside me swishing her skirt and asking him if she likes her dress.  Waitresses, Cassie's preschool teachers and check out attendants are all expected to admire her outfit of the day.  Unfortunately though I don't have a lot of patterns for her.  There are baby patterns and kids patterns from 3 up and only a small number (that I actually like at any rate) for in between.  Being titchy tiny I can make up baby patterns for her but the style isn't always right.

Butterick 6004, however, seemed like a nice choice.  Pretty and summery and sized from age 1.  I made the smallest size and there is plenty of room in there, I should really have lengthened it a bit though!

I'm currently having a dilemma with shop bought clothes as Lissy is very skinny but still a reasonable height for her age so clothes are either very baggy or far too short.  As a sewer, with a measuring tape, I shouldn't really be running into this problem, but I'll know better next time.  In my defence she was potty training when I made it and she kept dangling longer hems in the potty so short dresses were a godsend and she can always wear it with leggings in polite company.

Overall this dress was pretty simple, I did make a bit of a botch job with the bodice lining but she's 2 and she never stands still so no one will notice.  She loves the fabric, she adores cats (today she told me the kitten she plays with when we walk home from dropping Cassie at preschool is her best friend) so it's perfect for her.

It's actually really lovely fabric all round, light and airy, soft with a lovely texture.  Just perfect for a little girl to swish around in.

And one more little photo of my cutie...give us a twirl Lissy!

FO: Butterick 6230 for Cassie

I love making things for my kids, not quite as much as I like making stuff for meee, but I really enjoy seeing them in their special unique little garments.  Now that Cassie is growing up she has become really interested in the process and it's become a real joy to sit down with her and plan out a new project.  When I tell her it's her turn to have something made for her she gets to choose what type of garment she'd like and I'll get out any suitable fabrics that I have for her to choose from and then I'll pick out a few patterns that will work and she can make her final decision.  She really gets a kick out of being involved and it's really nice for me to feel that she's interested in what I'm doing.

This time around she wanted a dress, not terribly surprising as both girls are completely dress obsessed right now.  She picked a pink fabric with vehicles all over which I couldn't resist buying, because pink fabric with 'boy stuff' on is nowhere near as common as it should be, but had never used because it's a really horrible polycotton.  Her pattern selection was a See & Sew pattern, Butterick 6230 and thankfully she plumped for the non flouncy skirt because NO FLOUNCES!

Construction of this dress was super easy.  The button band is just a pleat running down the front bodice and then it's just a case of gathering the skirt, sewing everything up and sticking in the facing and a zip.  I gave Cassie the choice of whether to add buttons or not, of course she said yes and spent s good long time sorting through my button stash.  I'm not sure that the big red spotty numbers that she chose would have been on my shortlist but it's her dress and I won't be the one wearing it.  She loves it and is proud to wear it and that is really all that matters.

Literally the only difficult thing about this dress was choosing which photos to add to my post today.  I gave up in the end and made collages so that I could use them all!  Cassie loves to show off for the camera now and she's very creative with her poses.  It's completely worth sewing her up a little dress just for the little modelling routine I get treated to.  Ultimately I can see me making up a few of these in the future, but only if Cassie wants them of course!

FO: Simplicity 1174

While I have a trio of Briar/Mini Briar's I should be sharing today I haven't managed to get them all photographed yet so I'm skipping ahead a bit to a very special little project.

Today is the day that my precious firstborn turns 4.  This is a massive shock to my system, surely she was only just born!!!!  However, birthday girls need birthday dresses and Cassie is now old enough to choose for herself what she wants so I let her loose in the 'kids' section of my pattern filing cabinet and she very firmly chose Simplicity 1174.  Specifically the version with sleeves and it was very very important that I did not leave off the bows.

Unfortunately we've all been suffering from colds over the last couple of weeks with mine turning into some kind of horrible sinus thing so I kind of left it until the last minute.  Luckily this pattern turned out to be very simple so I managed to put it together in a couple of days even though I felt like an alien was going to come bursting out of my face any second.

Towards the end I was kind of hoping that she'd change her mind about the bows because I am far too lazy for that kind of nonsense but she insisted, of course, and actually they were not that much effort.  I really like the way they look now and I'm glad she insisted.  I'm also completely in love with the fabric.  It's a cotton from Doughty's which I purchased on a whim when I was ordering some denim.  I've got a bit over a metre left so be prepared to see it again!

Projects like this are the kind that really keep me going.  Cassie loves her new dress so much that she wore it for her little family party yesterday and then demanded that she wore it again today to go to preschool.  Making my little girl happy on her birthday is just the best feeling and I hope that she'll continue to ask me to make things for her and be proud to wear them as she gets older.