Hi, friends! First off, I want to express my gratitude for welcoming me back to the blogging world with such open arms. I missed you, I missed this, and it’s heartwarming for you to tell me you missed me doing this, too. My perspective and focus in life changed significantly when I became a mom, but it’s fun to work on this during their sleeping hours. I did a lot of micro-blogging on my personal Instagram, which was perfect for the year of having 2-under-2, but this feels a bit like coming home.
If you’re new here, or don’t know me to follow my personal Instagram, be sure to check out my MAKES page. I’ve updated the gallery with all of the projects I shared in the past year. The majority of those items I never blogged about, so if you click on those photos, they will pop open in a lightbox. However, moving forward, as I update the blog and add future items to the gallery, they will open a link to that item’s blog post. So, some link, some do not, it may be confusing, but that’s the why behind it.
I drafted this little shift dress for Chloe, my 13-month-old, to wear to the wedding last month. I mentioned in my last post that the original sketch for my dress included a scallop hem. Originally, that and the faux cap sleeves were the details that would tie our two dresses together. But, since you know how the timeline went for making my dress, you also know I scrapped the scallop hem on mine.
I use Pinterest a lot for inspiration, and three photos on one of my boards specifically stood out to me for this one. One was a lace Stella McCartney shift dress, another was a dress with a contrasting peter pan collar, and the third had a keyhole cutout in the back. I went to drafting and the pattern for this one came together inside of one nap time.
I used a cotton lawn called Sunday Dress Navy, designed by Melody Miller for Cotton + Steel. Cotton lawn is very soft and lightweight, so I fully lined the dress to give it structure and durability.
The scallop hem is NOT as easy as the internet said it would be (HA!). I think I spent nearly as much time fiddling with the hem as I did the construction of the entire rest of the dress.
It is a bit long on her while standing, but I was accounting for her being held and/or sitting (she’s not confidently walking solo yet) and it comes up to just the right place in both of those scenarios.
Also–yep matching suspenders for Harper. Because why not?
As a final note, does anyone have any tips for sewing with leather? My machine can handle bar tacks through SIX layers of denim, but cannot sew leather without skipping 75% of stitches. I use a leather needle and a walking foot (and I’ve tried other feet). I ended up hand-sewing a portion of the above just to get it finished, but you can see where things went awry!
I’ll leave you with our Easter photo this year, as we didn’t get a photo together at the wedding (my husband was the best man, aka busy man) and re-wore everything for Easter. You can read about my dress here if you missed it!
