Kwik Sew 3861

I am pretty excited about having my sewing area up and functioning. I really enjoy sewing, and it's nice to be able to do it again. Because of the 'L' shape, this is an even better arrangement than the one I had before. All I have to do is swivel my chair to change from sewing machine to serger. I like it.

It's also good, because I have some girls who keep growing up, but not really growing out. This, combined with being tall for their age, makes finding dresses for them, that they also like to be tricky. It's so much easier to let them look through my patterns and then choose the fabric. I can cut the dress to fit them, and everyone is happy.

G. was the first to get a new dress because she had nothing in her closet for colder weather. She chose Kwik Sew 3861. If you click on the link, you will see that the pattern envelope shows it is for a loose shirt, and not really a dress. I had made this before, so thought it would be pretty easy to lengthen it and make a loose dress. So, off to the fabric store she and I went, because while a have a lot of fabric in my stash, I don't have a lot of knits, and certainly not enough to cut out an entire dress. We found a blue material that she liked, so we headed home. To make it more interesting, we decided that it should have some contrasting parts, so G. decided that add some grey to the blue would be nice. And I think she was right. I added a grey band around the bottom of the dress as well, to tie the whole thing together a bit more.

Here's what we ended up with. I promise you, she is very happy with the dress, just not with having to pose for a picture when she really wanted to change and go outside to play.

But I tell you, taking nearly a full year off from sewing wrecks havoc with one's sewing skills. I am more than a little rusty, and there is so much about this dress that you won't be seeing close up. I need to brush up on my sewing skills. This will be pretty easy to manage since L. decided that none of her dresses fit, either. They actually fit fairly well, but what L. really meant was that she wanted a new dress, too. She ended up picking the same one as G., and decided that she wanted the reverse, mainly grey with blue trim. This made me very happy, as it is what I would have chosen. I can make the twinniness last just a little longer. After that dress is done, Y. realized that perhaps she should be getting a new dress, too. R. and H. are pretty well set for dresses, but we'll see if they decide that they, too, need an addition to their wardrobes.