Victoria in Her Green and Black Dress

All ready for Easter.

Joanna's Appliqué

This is a little jacket Hannah got for Joanna, to go with a blue and yellow flowered skirt she is making her for Easter.  It needed a bit of 'fancying up', so I appliquéd blue and yellow flowers on it and sewed a narrow strip of the skirt fabric onto the side bands.

If I do any turned-edge appliqués much smaller than the petals on these flowers, I'm going to have to do them under a microscope!  Some of them are about half the size of my little fingernail.

Here are the little pieces, glued together, but still loose.

And here are the flowers appliquéd on the jacket.

Joanna's skirt fabric.

Victoria's Green Satin/Black Lace Easter Dress

Here is one of Victoria's Easter dresses.  She found the hat online at Divine Fashions and just had to have it.  Then she was delighted to find the matching shoes.  One day last week, we went off to The Fabric Shop, a local store that sells all sorts of fancy fabric (but no quilting cotton), hat in hand, and found green satin just like the flower and band on the hat (see below).

I used a new Simplicity pattern called 'Vintage 50s'.  The sizes stated on the back of the pattern were exactly the same as the pattern I used for Victoria's red dress, so I cut the size eight and sewed it together.  Big mistake.

Saturday evening, she tried it on. 

After a lengthy wait, I heard a muffled, "Helllllp!" and went to see what the trouble was.

There was Victoria, stuck quite soundly in her dress, arms straight up.

This dress buttons in the front.  The opening stops at the waist, and there is a side zipper.  But she couldn't get it on.

"Why didn't you stop?!" I exclaimed.

"Well, I kept thinking if I just wriggled a little more..." explained Victoria.

With a good deal of effort, I extracted her from the dress.  I threw in the towel that night, but launched in again Tuesday, plying a seam ripper whose blade has gotten decidedly dull.  Somebody must be borrowing it from me; I can't possibly have gotten it that dull all by myself.  Can I?

After adding gussets to both sleeves and both sides of the bodice, reinserting the zipper, and cutting an opening and inserting a continuous lap at the front of the skirt, it fits.  Almost.  The sleeves aren't quite right, she can't lift her arms very high, and the seams are scratchy.  I've now cut satin facings for the sleeve hems, and will put them on tomorrow.  Perhaps I'll cover the sleeve seams with ribbon.

Here are Victoria's hat and shoes:

And this is the pattern that should have been cut as a 12 instead of an 8, never mind the fact that other size 8s fit her perfectly, whether bought or sewn:

And heeeeere she is:

Joanna's Red, White, & Teal Dress

Joanna's Strawberry Shortcake Nightgown

Today I sewed this flannel nightgown for our oldest granddaughter, Joanna, who turned 11 on the 13th.  Hannah cut it out; I sewed it.