Pattern Review - Perfect Little Party Dress

It was a very productive weekend without a little toddler on my heels chanting "Up! Up!" all day long.  All I can say is, God bless grandparents!  But I missed her like crazy, so of course everything I ended up sewing was Phoebe-related.  

I did manage to clean my craft room and will be posting about that later, but after taking these pictures of Phoebe in her new Halloween dress, I just couldn't resist posting these first.  I apologize for the picture-laden post, but I just can't resist how adorable she is!

 

This is another pattern from Heidi and Finn - the Perfect Little Party Dress.  I can't even believe how fast this came together - it took less than an hour.  After using two patterns by Heidi and Finn, I would definitely recommend them for a beginning sewer.  They are emailed to you immediately as a PDF and have lots of clear instructions and photos.

It comes with pattern sizes 12 month - 5T.  Of course, Phoebe happens to be wearing size 18 month right now, so I just extended the 12 month pattern a bit, and added a couple inches in length because she's quite tall for her age anyhow.  I didn't make any other adjustments; I contemplated on shortening the sashes because I don't like the look of a huge bow, but since the dress ended up being a little wide, I was able to wrap them around her twice and it fit perfectly.

This dress was made on the cheap as well.  I got the polka dot fabric on sale at Joann's - you can definitely tell it's of terribly cheap quality - but for a Halloween dress that will only be worn a couple of times, it doesn't bother me too much.  The sash is made out of a curtain that had a previous life as duvet cover from Ikea.  

I have a terrible habit of never buying matching thread with my fabric.  I always find tons of thread at garage and estate sales, so I just try to find the closest match that I have on hand.  While making this dress I discovered that people must not use orange thread all that much.  So don't look too closely at the hems, which are stitched in red.

 But I think Phoebe likes it anyway.

Past Project Friday

Every Friday I will be posting some sort of crafty project that I have completed in the past.  It could be anything from baking, to sewing, needlecrafts, art, decorating, etc.

I started decorating cakes about five years ago.  I had just gotten married and moved across the state with my husband, who was starting medical school.  Well, I learned pretty quick that I should consider myself lucky if I got to see my husband for at least 10 minutes at the end of the day with his intense schedule - so needless to say, I had a lot of time on my hands.  

I decided on a whim to sign myself up for the Wilton cake decorating classes that are offered at Joann's or Michaels.  I'd always liked baking, and it just seemed like something fun to do.  Well, it turned out that I was a pretty good cake decorator!  I ended up taking all three Wilton classes, and kind of struck out on my own after that; learning new methods by reading books, websites, and a whole lot of trial-and-error.

 

This cake was made a mere 4 months after taking my first class.  I volunteered to make the cake for our work Christmas party, and pretty much knocked the socks off of everyone when I walked in with this.

It's a chocolate cake filled with a mint chocolate ganache.  The cup of cocoa on top is made of cake with white chocolate steam swirls and marshmallows.  I made the snowmen out of fondant and the snowflakes are royal icing.

It's only fitting that I post about this cake today since just a couple of days ago the book 1,000 Ideas for Decorating Cupcakes, Cookies & Cakes hit the shelves, which features this cake!  I haven't seen it in person yet, but I think a trip to the bookstore is in order.  You can check it out for yourself here....

   

 

Coming clean

I have a confession to make - I hate to clean.  I love a nice, clean, organized house, but with a one year old, it never stays that way for very long.  When I do clean she is usually just two steps behind me, pulling books off of shelves, scattering toys everywhere, and placing random objects in even more random places (remote control in the bathtub, anyone?).  So generally I let it go - unless of course someone is coming over, and then I quickly clear off the top layer of debris and throw it in a closet so people don't think I'm becoming a hoarder.  

Sadly, my craft room is what suffers the most.  I'm usually the only one that goes in there (well, besides Phoebe who finds it the most fun room in which to create destruction), and it's so easy to just close the door when guests come over.  And lets face it, crafting is a dirty job.  Fabric scraps, pattern pieces, thread, and bobbins cover the room - and of course I usually have at least ten projects going at one time which doesn't help the situation.  

So here's the current sad state of my craft room.  It has actually gotten to the point where I can barely even work in here, which usually tells me that it's time for a good, deep cleaning.  Easier said than done with a toddler around, but the stars have aligned and my amazing parents are borrowing Phoebe for the next few days, and organizing the craft room has become my number one goal (followed by about 50 other goals).  My main reason in posting these embarrassing pictures is so I'll actually follow through and get it back in order.

I might as well stop blogging and get to work!