Me Made May - Days 2 and 3

Yesterday, I took the girls to the playground.  I took our dog, Dolce, on a whim, which turned out to be a bad idea.  There was a sign banning dogs from the playground, so she and I had to stay out.  I wanted to tie her up to the fence, but she wouldn't stop barking until I walked around with her.  I had to stay close to the girls, so I just walked the length of the playground, turned around, walked back and repeated.  Finally, Dolce decided she could be content in one spot and that gave me a chance to take a picture for my daily outfit photo.

top - Grainline Hemlock Tee (free pattern!) in knit from Girl Charlee
necklace - Liberty lawn covered wooden beads
pants - Old Navy (I have these in about 6 colors)
shoes - Crocs (I want these in more colors)

Today, we went as a family to Fernbank Museum of Natural History.  We are members and enjoy the permanent and changing exhibits, but today, they had a special "Pirate Day" theme with activities for kids.  I homeschool my girls, if I haven't already mentioned that, and we are going through the alphabet, one letter per week, to guide our studies.  This week was letter "P" so we couldn't pass up the chance to celebrate "Pirate Day."  We didn't dress for the ocassion, but we did have fun.

blouse - Simplicity 2246 in chambray (shortened from the dress I originally made)

shirt - Old Navy girls XL (I totally check out the girls' section in stores)

jeans - Target

shoes - Target

Me Made May - Day 1

HAHAHAHAhahahahaha!!!  I just wrote "Day 1"  in the title of this post which seems to mean that I would subsequently have a "Day 2" and "Day 3" and so on.  Well, maybe I should re-title it because we all know that AIN'T gonna happen.  At this point, you can either breathe a sigh of relief that I am not going to try to make an entire blog post out of my outfit every day or you can lower your expectations of me and plan on getting your daily fashion inspiration somewhere else.

Gracious, I'm feeling saucy this morning.  Maybe I should have gotten more than halfway through my first cup of coffee before writing?

Alright, enough.  On to my outfit from May 1st.

The stairway in our last house was a nice spot for photos.  I had my husband grab this shot really quickly in the carport of our "new" rental as we were headed out to an orchestra concert at his old highschool.  I think I like the brick and may have found my new photo location, at least on sunny days at about 5 o'clock when the light is perfect.

Outfit details:
top- Grainline Scout Tee in cotton lawn
bottom- Molly Blossom Magnolia Breeze pant (currently in testing) in chambray

Want to know more about Me Made May?  Go straight to the source over at So Zo... to read all about it.
And if you decided to take the challenge, there's fabric and patterns to be won with added giveaways this year!

Only A Few More Days!

Coming soon, for one week only, nineteen pattern designers will be joining together to combine their best PDF sewing patterns and selling them to you for the incredible price of $29.95! That’s over 80% off of the combined retail value! The Sew Fab Pattern Sale is the original pattern bundle sale! Grab the bundle when it goes on sale next week and you’ll be all set for the spring and summer seasons! You have to wait until next week to see which patterns are included in this spring’s bundle, but take a look below to see which designers you'll find! I think you will be as excited as I am to see some previous favorites as well as several amazing designers that are new to the Sew Fab Sale. Greenstyle Creations, Handmade Therapy, MODKID, Everything Your Mama Made, The Scientific Seamstress, Figgy's Patterns, Two Sweets Patterns, Things for Boys, Patchwork Posse, Betz White, LBG Studio, Mouse House Creations, Gingercake, Heidi & Finn, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Terra's Treasures, Paisley Roots, Molly Blossom Designs, Sewing Mama RaeAnna. Sale sponsored by The Southern Institute. See you right here, bright and early on Monday morning!

The Perfect Party Dress = The Perfect Piano Recital Dress

If you have seen any of the other Tie Dye Diva blog hop posts, you have probably already gotten lots of great ideas on how you can alter the Perfect Party Dress to suit any occasion.
I have to apologize up front because I think most of the other bloggers are going to show you how to acheive the look they did and I am not going to be able to do that to the extent that others have done.  I had already made the dress I'm featuring before this blog hop was organized, so I didn't take any step-by-step photos or measurements.
Hopefully, you can still glean some ideas from what you see and what I say.

Here is the dress I made for my 4-year-old daughter's graduation recital where she played Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and three variations on the theme.  If you have a music student doing the Suzuki Method, you are familiar with this first milestone.

As quickly as I can explain it, here are the changes I made to the pattern:

I shortened the bodice.

I made layered flutter sleeves. (Just a straight line on one side the length of which I got from measuring the armholes.  And a curved line for the outside of the sleeve, which I finished with a baby hem.)

Instead of the sash, I folded a strip of fabric and sewed it into the seam where the skirt attaches to the bodice.  I just made a bow and tacked it on the front with some handsewn stitches.

I made the skirt a hi-lo skirt and then made up the difference with another layered ruffle in the front and just the single orange ruffle in the back.

Here she is recieving her trophy for her Twinkles.  Her lovely teacher got down on her knees for a photo op.  :)

You can't see the fabric very well, but I tried to tie it in to the occassion.  The blue has little stars, the multi-colored is diamonds ("like a diamond") and the orange has tiny planets and rockets on it. 

I know the fabric choice has nothing to do with the pattern, but the fact that I chose this pattern to make this dress for such an important moment in my young girl's life speaks to my regard for this     pattern. 

It is adorable if you only use it with the two main options Jen has provided, but if you even feel yourself wanting to try out something a little different, the basic shapes of The Perfect Party Dress and the comfortable fit make it a great pattern to have in your stash.  And right now, I hear the price has been reduced to celebrate all you blog hoppers!
You can use my affiliate link to get over to the Tie Dye Diva store right now and get your creativity flowing.

Tie Dye Diva Perfect Party Dress Blog Hop

I've told you about Tie Dye Diva patterns before and I'm sure I'll mention them again, but this is a particularly super-great reason to bring them up.  It's a blog hop, y'all!

The thing I love most about a blog hop is that you get to hear a lot of different perspectives on a pattern and you get to see a lot of different pictures of makes from the pattern.  This blog hop is particularly cool, in my opinion, because when I was asked to join, I was told that our goal was not just to make The Perfect Party Dress, but to use the pattern in a unique way.  So, not only do you get to see a lot of Perfect Party Dresses, you get to see how versatile this pattern truly is.  If you like to fiddle around with patterns and change them to match your vision or maybe DIY a dress you saw in a store or catalogue, this is a well-drafted starting place to make your vision into a reality.

Here are some of the variations I have made.

It's my turn tomorrow.  Come back then to see how I made The Perfect Party Dress my own.



This post contains affiliate links.  I can vouch for the quality of Tie Dye Diva patterns and I feel totally confident you will be happy with any purchase from her wide selection of patterns.

The Conclusion of Easter Sewing

Well, the sad conclusion is that I do not yet have the skills needed to sew a nice looking wool coat.  I really wanted to make each girl a coat from lavender herringbone wool with a pink crepe-backed satin lining, but there were too many hiccups along the way and I don't have the knowledge base or skills to fix everything that wasn't quite working.  I got about 3/4 of the way done with one and had to stop in tears.  I went back the next day with resolve to go ahead with the lining and make it work, but the more I worked on it, the more little trouble areas I ran into and the more home-sewn it was starting to look.

I wanted to make them coats that would be beautiful and durable to last a couple of Falls and Springs, but it wasn't meant to be.
I haven't had a failure that has gotten me down quite this much in a while.

Enough of the pity party and on to some pretty pictures of what DID get finished and worn.

I like my girls to coordinate but not to be twinsies, so I used fabric from the same line (Glitz by Michael Miller) in two different prints.
I used the same basic pattern but altered it a little differently for each dress.

For my dress, I used Simplicity 2584, now out of print.  I bought barely enough Amy Butler rayon challis at Hawthorne Threads several months ago on sale.  I widened the bottom half into a bit of an a-line shape because I didn't want to feel restricted in a shift dress.  I wanted an easy-to-wear casual dress where the pretty print could be the star.  Unfortunately, since I didn't do the yoke in a solid color or add piping around the edges or something else to deliniate the edges, the pretty shape of it is lost in the print.

I used my embroidery machine to make lambs for my girls' Easter baskets and they carried them around that whole day and slept with them and have been playing with them ever since.  GREAT investment in a $10 pattern.

So, of course, we had a happy Easter, even without beautiful lavender coats with pink lining.  

Me-Made-May 2014

It's on y'all!  I'm so excited that Zoe is hosting Me Made May again! If you are not familiar with this phenomena, you can read all about it on on Zoe's blog.
 I don't know exactly why I get so excited about it, but part of it is seeing more outfit posts than usual and being inspired by fabrics and patterns and part of it is the extra boost of encouragement I get by people stopping by on Flickr to say they like my sewn items.


Here's my pledge (not unlike last year's)

I, Sara Upshaw of The Pretty Pickle, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavour to wear one hand sewn item, whether bag or clothing, each day for the duration of May 2014.

I joined the Flickr group and followed the Pinterest board.  Hope to see you there!