A page in transition: Rainbow brite x the big tent

Cruising the remnant piles at fabric stores, I picked up this vibrant-as-dart-frogs rainbow stripey fabric a few months ago thinking "oh! toddlers wear bright colors?!" and this weekend was the week to act on that impulse buy (because seriously...who buys fabric deliberately? Please see: my cupboard full of quilting cottons #don'twannatalkaboutit)

Abs has this adorable chambray dress I picked up at a holiday craft fair (#don'twannatalkaboutitx2) last year and I figured it was time to act on one of those "make a toddler dress tutorials" that promises all kinds of instruction yet offers none whatsoever. You know, the sort that says "take a dress you already have and trace it, then fashion that into your own dress and remember the right way to assemble a dress because you are already a sewing pro"? Familiar? Helpful?

Turns out, those are less helpful unless you are legit a sewing pro, but let me highlight some of the positive aspects and lessons-learned of poorly tracing a pattern off of an existing dress (without disassembling it because I paid good money for that chambray fantasy):

practice using the rolled hem foot

I rarely have a chance to use this scaled-down piece of evil, so it was good to experiment a little bit on her ruffled hems.

Lots of curses, but actually one of the better parts of this sewing expedition.

This sewing machine foot (the rolled hem foot) is a pain in the ###, but this tutorial offered some assistance.

The near one is the first one...I like to think I got slightly better from one sleeve to the next.

I should use some patterns with instructions

I had to approach and re-approach the ruffled sleeves a number of times. Why? Because my brain forgot the appropriate order for assembly and I stitched seams in the wrong order. e.g. stitching the bodice side before I attached the sleeves. What? It is like I wanted to rip seams. urg. So, I should sew some legit patterns to remind myself of viable vs. non-viable assembly sequences.

ruffled sleeves, waiting for action.

Round three of "how tha heck do I make ruffles part of this dress?"

Toddler dresses are remarkably forgiving

Bodice doesn't fit? Who cares!? Dress is too long? Who can tell!? Baby girl moves so fast that you can scarcely see my error (of which, there are PLENTY.) I'm feeling more positive about making clothes for fast-moving blobs, place your orders now.