headbands

1 week and counting until the wedding!  The 3 dresses are complete :)

Our bride wants the girls to wear a ribbon in their hair, but I know that they will pull it out a few times during our wedding events.  So instead of  having to retie the bow constantly I thought I'd make some head bands that look like a ribbon tied in their hair.

We could do something like this with the ribbon sewn over a plastic headband  (the flat bow can stay, go, or be swapped out with something different.)

Or something like this that is just some ribbon with an elastic sewn to the ends

We can add a bow to the ribbon and it will look like this  

Or we could do a flower clip instead of the bow.
This one is not the same as the flower in the last post.  That one was made out of the fabric of the skirt and this one is made out of the ribbon.

Last but not least a ruffly headband like this.

If you have time, tell us what you think Heather.  (If you are way too busy with other pre-wedding stuff we will just bring 3 of everything so you don't have to think about it.)  We hear the Bridal shower is today.  Hope you have a great time, wish we were there.

Wedding hair

I am done with 2 of the 3 dresses and before I send one of them off in the mail I thought I'd get some feedback on hair ideas so I could send some hair accessories with the dress.  This is the dress I'm sending off.  It's a bit short for Maggie, but will be perfect for the intended wearer.

The first 3 are quick and easy hair do's, the last 2 take more time and skill.

Here are 2 easy accessories to make.  the flower is just a fabric yoyo with a button covering up the raw edges and the bow can be explained here at the ribbon retreat

#1 Flower Yoyo 

#2 Bow clip

 #3 Ribbon braid bun
This is a cute easy hair-do from cute girls hairstyles.  The tutorial can be found here
It can be looped like this, or wrapped up like a bun if you have short hair.  It requires a long piece of ribbon for each Braid.

#4 Braided Crown/Carousel braid
If we want to get fancy with the Braiding we could do something with or without a clip like this

#5 Double French Braids
We could also try something like this with a big flower at the base of the braids.

What do you think?  Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions would be great.

The wedding dress saga continues

This is the dress that I'm assigned to wear.

Cute, right!  I'm trying to recreate it in a child's size, but I am learning that no matter how many times I go to the fabric store or how much fabric I order on-line, I'm never going to be able to match the color shades exactly.  So between my pattern practice and color choices I have a few questions.

Question #1 the waist-
High waist (black dress) or low waist (cream and coral)?
With the high waist I have to add so much length to the layers that they look a little strange, so I'm thinking that the low waisted dress looks best.

Question #2 fabric choices-
Now that the dress I'm supposed to wear has been decided I know that I need to have the skirt lined with  beige instead of coral.  (so that small swatch on the front of the dress is what the whole skirt would look like.
Or, I could go with a different shade of coral.  (The bottom one in this photo is the other option.  It is not as see through as the fabric in the coral and cream dress, so it wouldn't have the same effect as the one I'm trying to recreate with the 2 layers.  But I wonder if it is a better color match.)

Question #3
Is the top too creamy?  The only other fabric option in the fabric store for the top was a champagne color.  Would that be too dark?
Question #4
What do you think of the lace?  Is it good or should I get something with a smaller pattern?  No shine?


So to sum up my questions

1. High waist (black dress) or low waist (cream and coral)?_________________
2. What shade of coral should I use, the see through one or the one in the bottom of the photo?_________________
3. Should I use a champagne color lace for the top instead of cream?_________________
4. What type of lace should I use for the top?_________________
5. Bonus question, am I just obsessing over all this too much, and it doesn't really matter?

And for your enjoyment, here are some more goofy pictures of Gwen in her dresses.

 These two are my favorite :)

She LOVES the black one, so I know that all this work will be worth it when she has 2 fun twirly dresses.

Wedding dress #4

So I've submitted dress #3 to the bride and we will see what she has to say.  If she doesn't like it, or is disappointed that there is no lace on it, I will try a little harder to make this dress come to life. It was my first dress idea when my Mom told me that we needed to get the girls dresses that would coordinate with the wedding.  It's obviously inspired by Kate Middleton's Royal wedding dress.  The great thing about this one is that I could probably easily buy a coral dress on line and only have to make the jacket.

Here was my first attempt at a jacket.  (I didn't have any scraps of lace, so I used Georgette fabric.  So just use your imagination on that.)

The things I don't like:

• The sleeves are too big for this jacket
• The front of the jacket is poofy, I'm not sure if that is from me stretching it out as I folded down the edge to hem it, or if I need to alter the original pattern I made.
• The shoulder is not wide enough.  It needs to reach closer up to her neck.  
• The bow should be a little wider because even though it looks cute in the picture, every time she moved there was a gap between the 2 layers
• It needs a loop on the sides for the ties to go through to help it stay in place.

The things I like:

• I think that the basic design is good.  
• The bow is cute from both the back and the front and it is functional to make it fit perfectly around the waist.

If she likes this one and I work out the kinks it looks like I'll have to order the lace on ebay.  (My local fabric store had a very sad selection of coral special occasion fabric.)  It makes me so grateful to be a seamstress during this day and time and not 30 or more years ago.

P.S. I'm having so much fun being creative right now with all these dresses.  I think it hit me recently that in a year or so we will be moving and our new place probably won't be as big, so I won't have a room where my sewing machine can be left out all the time.

**********Update**********

6-14-2013- I tried today to make the adjustments that I noticed needed to be made, but they didn't really help much.  This is so frustrating to try and try and try and not make any progress.  (Today's jacket was jacket #3 for dress option #4 I must be crazy.)  Maybe I'll go back to New Look 6930 and just add the supper long waist band so it will fit better.  Because I really love the long wrap around look, and I think our bride really wants there to be lace on the dress.  My drawing was just so cute, I wish I could make it happen.  I guess there is a reason why a dress like Kate's or Princess Grace's would be so expensive.  It would require A LOT of tailoring.

Butterick 4967 Pattern Review

Wedding dress option #3

I was putting off this dress option because I could tell it would be more work than the others.  It had no sleeves and the sizing wasn't quite right for my oldest who is growing tall and thin.

But I sat down to make it and after about a weeks work it was done.  She loves the dress and I was able to make it out of fabric that I had in my stash, so all it cost was 1 zipper and my time.  I might go to the fabric store to buy stuff to make the sash that goes around the waist as seen in the pattern.  I'm sure she'd love it to be fuchsia like her shoes.

 I put it on her and told her to go in the other room to check it out in the mirror, when she came back she was so excited. I asked if she loved it and she said that it made her feel like a princess.  I was so glad because last month I tried to make a shrug for her and when she tried it on she was grumpy and told me it made her feel like "a fat old woman."

  I'm not sure where she heard that kind of talk because we never say fat in our house in hopes that it won't promote a poor body image.  (If I'm dieting or something I always try to say "I am trying my best to eat healthy so that I feel good." stuff like that.)  Anyway, it must have come from school.

Cons to this pattern

• It was just not made for my oldest's body type.  I read some other reviews online that complained about the same thing.  She wears a size 7 dress, but i had to make her the size 5 and add 4 extra inches to make it fit.  (2" to the bodice and 2" to the tiers)
• Another place that obviously needs to be adjusted if I make this dress again is the neckline.  If she grows out of this dress quickly it will be because it is choking her.  If I make it again I will need to adjust the neckline by and inch or two so she has a little more room up there.
• It didn't have a sleeve option.  So I just used the sleeve from the last dress I make and it turned out great (New Look 6930)

Pros to the pattern:

• My daughter LOVES IT!!!
• I love that it doesn't look babyish.  So she gets to feel grown up without looking too grown up.  (I think my husband will like it for that reason :)
• The tiers are so cute and playful.  They move beautifully because they have a circular shape instead of being a straight strip of fabric that is ruffled.
• I learned a lot of new techniques (How to PROPERLY finish a circular hem, how to add a sleeve before sewing up the side seems, and more about how to sew delicate fabric.)

Overall, This is a cute dress, I love that it has a lining, but if your daughter doesn't fit the sizing very well, keep shopping for a similar pattern from a different company that might be more suited to her body type*.  It will just save you a lot of time.

*After reviewing the different pattern companies the only other pattern similar to this one is made by McCalls, but they seemed to be owned by the same company as Butterick and have the same size charts.  So I don't have a similar dress to refer to, but I reviewed the patterns of many of the popular company's and I noticed that Burda has a lot of patterns for girls that I liked.  When I looked at their size chart it seemed to be more suited to my daughter's body type.  I think I'll give them a try next time I am pattern shopping.

New Look 6930-Pattern Review

This is wedding dress option #2 for my girls.  

New Look #6930

Cons:

• It is too baggy around the waistline-  I think a roomy waist is cute in some dress styles, but with the trim around the rib cage on this dress, the baggy-ness just makes it look like it doesn't fit right.  In order to make the dress look better I'd suggest getting a very long ribbon that ties in the front like show (because that is so adorable) but instead of sewing it to the dress all the way back to the zipper closure, stop at the side seem and let it hang free so that you could use it to tighten the dress to improve the fit.

Pros:

• I liked the use of bias tape to fold down the neckline.
• The directions were great and easy to follow.  
• It went together faster than I expected
• The ruffle and trim is SO CUTE!!!! 
• This sleeve is ruffled instead of lying flat, so as sleeves go it was on the easier side.

This project would be good for a seamstress who is ready to graduate from beginner to intermediate.

Mix-trail

I know I've posted about this trail mix we like someplace before, but I don't think I've shared the recipe.
We don't make this very often, but my husband and I took the kids out camping this weekend and let the kids help with the meal planning.  This is one of the things they said absolutely must be on the menu.  So I think they'd be sad if they grew up and couldn't find the recipe here on my blog.
My kids were little when we came up with the recipe and they kept forgetting the name and called it mix-trail instead of trail-mix.  So the name has stuck.

Less-Healthy version of Mix-Trail

6 cups of Cheerios

1 bag of Peanut Butter M & M's (11.40 oz bag)

1 bag of Craisins (10 oz. Bag) 

1 bag of Milk chocolate chips (11.5 oz bag)

1 can of Peanuts (14 oz. can)

1 bag of Caramel bits (11 oz. bag)

1. Combine everything into the biggest bowl or pot you have.
2. Mix
3. Separate into 2 gallon sized zip lock bags (1 for now, 1 for latter)

I like to serve this at big parties like Bunko night.  

But if you don't have a lot of people coming through the door, you will end up with a lot of left overs, eat them all shamelessly, and be sad about it when you realize your pants don't fit good anymore. So I made a more healthy version with a larger cheerio to candy ratio.  1/2 cup of this is about 235 calories for those calorie counters out there.  Also, this all fits into 1 ziplock bag.  I like to put the 1/2 cup measuring cup in the bag so I know how much I am eating.  

Healthy-er version of Mix-Trail

1 cup Caramel Bits

1 cup Milk Chocolate Chips

1 cup Peanut Butter M & M's

2 cups Peanuts

2 Cups Craisins

4 Cups Cheerios

1.  Put everything into a gallon size ziplock bag and close it without squeezing all the air out.  Shake it up good to mix everything together.  Serve

Now hide the left over candy or feed it to your kids so you don't end up eating it all in a moment of weakness.