Mommy and Me

I recently completed my very first garment....a real sewing project! It all started a few years ago when I bought this fabric....

...along with some terry cloth I was using to recover a bathroom stool. It was on clearance and I suppose I was drawn to the color. It's my favorite, especially for clothes. I tucked this fabric away, since I had no sewing skills, nor a sewing machine.

Fast forward to the present. I now have a sewing machine and also have taken a sewing class, so I figured it was time to put some of my new skills to good use. I decided to make myself a dress, but after seeing how much fabric I had, I decided to make one for my 2 year old daughter, too.

The fabric was easy to work with...the shirring was already done, so all that was left was to sew the side seams and hem it. I could have left the selvedge and had an unfinished look to the long hem, but I decided to make it knee-length. I already have a dress similar to this one that is long!

So...I sewed hem on my dress....

And then I sewed the side seam. Repeat for little Sweetie's dress. Here is a shot of her dress pinned up.

Now I had two dresses....

However, I needed a way to attach straps to her dress. I asked the lady at the cutting counter at Jo-Ann Fabrics what to do. She advised me to use ribbons that would tie in a bow....no measuring! Sounds good to me.

I cut four and went forwards-backwards-forwards on each one to attach. After finishing and getting ready to try it on Annie, I realized I had put the ties in her armpits. Hm. So I cut them out and reattached. At least no one can see this mistake. BTW, the only other mistake I think I made? Not prewashing my fabric. ; )

My Jo-Ann lady also hit me up to a thing called Fray-Check. This keeps the ends of the ribbon from fraying!

The end result? Matching dresses for me and my girl. Not my style all the time, but you gotta have some fun as a mama and daughter.

What a ham she is.