Happy Love Day and a Dress

Happy Valentine's Day! With my holiday-lovin' girl it feels like we pretty much live holiday to holiday around here. My last post was for Halloween and today I deliver Valentines Day. Sure, my blog may have missed a few holidays in between, but it is mainly because we are living it up so much in real life.

This year my valentine asked to design her own dress so she came to me with the following sketch.



Her drawings melt my heart. Because she's my oldest I sometimes treat her like she is older than she really is. But then I see the little figures she draws and I realize that she is still my little girl... neck-less and with balls for hands and feet.

Her requirements: long sleeves, pockets, and a bow.



I met one of her requirements. The dress has pockets. We compromised with the sleeves since even in February in Phoenix, long sleeves are impractical. Plus these elbow-length sleeves are kind of my thing. I really love them. Also my new thing, those contrasting shoulder pieces. I don't think I am going to stop using those for a while. They are so fun to add to make a simple design special.

As for the bow, she nixed it once she saw the finished dress. "No bow. I like it just like it is," she said. I totally agree with her design decision and am proud she knows how to edit her ideas.

There was one big problem with the finished dress though. One big, gaping problem and that was the neckline. Even though I've sewn with knits a lot I still run into problems with hemming and usually in the neckline. You have to be careful not to stretch or warp the fabric as you work with it. By the time I finished sewing the binding around the neck, the thing had at least doubled in size. So frustrating! You can see it in my below Instagram pic (if you want to insta-follow me, my username is chelisepatterson)



Drew loved it anyway and still insisted on wearing it, even though two of her heads could have fit through that thing. But I'm kind of wierd in that I would like the things I take so much time and effort on to actually be wearable. Wierd I know.

So I picked off all the binding, stitched a gathering stitch along the front neck, gathered it in, and re-sewed on the binding. Fixed.



The day I finished the dress with the gaping neckline though, I got online and ordered this Knit Stay Tape I have wanted to try for a while. I ordered mine from here and received it quickly, only a few days later. I can't wait to try it on my next knit project! I will iron it around my neckline pieces before I do any sewing with the fabric.



Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

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To get the free photoshop arrows I used in my pictures, go here! (Except for the arrow-through-the-head-one, I modified that.)

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Also, here is the valentine my kids sent out to family this year! Drew wrote in the names on her white heart after we had them printed.



Smooch!