It Never Fails

Rose, Bug, Barbie, JB, or Babydoll, doesn't matter, take your pick:
    "Mama, make me stuff.  Make me a dress."
Me:
    "OK."

The result:

Usually something like this.  Very cute sundress but it doesn't fit.  Very frustrating.

I wanted to surprise Bug with this and basically just whipped it up while she was at work, yesterday afternoon.

Bug is long waisted.  The pattern I used is vintage (as in "it was mine when I was her age"), and the bodice was cut to the waist.  So I shaved off about 3" from the waistline to make it more of an empire waist.

Bad idea.

First off, it hits about 2" above her waist but well below the empire line.  Secondly, she informed me that she looks terrible in empire waisted things.  (When did this happen?)

So the plan now is to cut the bodice shorter, add a contrasting lower bodice that will fall almost to her hips, and then re-attach the skirt.  A whole lotta trouble for something I was just going to whip up in an afternoon.

And by the way -- the print is one I got from Hobby Lobby summer before last.  It's chinese characters printed in white on a black background.  Bug loves all things Japanese, and it was close --

I'll post the finished dress when it's done.  And successfully on the Bug.

xoxoxox

Done.

I hate doing tulle and crinolines.

But it was so worth it --

What a Mess.

I didn't get much done last night. This is because of a well-known and widely detested fact:

YOU GOTTA BE A FLIPPIN' MECHANICAL GENIUS SOMETIMES JUST TO SEW.

I was trying to sew some net together, and the machine kept jamming. Simple fix: rethread. That fixed it pretty quickly -- but only after I took out the bobbin about 5 times, oiled the bobbin, removed the faceplate and blew out all the fuzz, replaced the faceplate, and tried again -- again -- again -- again -- again.

Very frustrating. Plus, the 2-hour premiere of House was on, so I gave up.

Here's what I was doing. Barbie chose a pattern for a dress, and I made it for her. Lots of changes to it, since the pattern is from 1954. Oh, oh, oh so cute, though!

One of Barbie's must-haves was a crinoline in order to pouf up the skirt. My solution? Sew some netting into the lining of the skirt (which the pattern did not require, but I thought it needed). Two rows oughtta do it, I thought.

So here's the pattern, Simplicity 4708, published 1954:

And here's the dress --

and here's the mess:

I also have a bit of trim to add to the jacket and skirt hem. That is, after I finish with all this netting and tulle on the underskirt. See that bunched up wad of white netting on the table? That's the second layer, under the blue. I cut long strips, and am attaching them to each other with strips of ribbon -- because my machine doesn't like trying to sew thread over what amounts to all the air between the spaces in the netting!

Wish me luck. It's gonna get worse before it gets better.

xoxox