Mama needs new clothes too!

Now that the temperature is starting to creep up, I've been itching to make some new dresses for me. I've heard fantastic things about the new Jalie dress pattern, so it was high on my "must sew" list. True to the hype, this is a fantastic pattern. The fit is perfect and it is so easy! I do not particularly like Jalie's method of doing visible binding, so I just did it my way. In the future, I will just use my coverstitch binder, because doing all the binding was rather a pain. Once the binding was done, the dress was a breeze! I can't wait to do the other two views of this dress.

I had to crop my head out of these pictures - I'm having a *really* bad hair day. And are my arms really that long? Goodness, I look like a gorilla.

I purchased this fabric on one of my San Francisco shopping excursions.

Pattern: Jalie 3024

And the next dress is something of a departure for me: I used a woven fabric! I have not made too many woven dresses for me, or woven anything for that matter. But this particular pattern doesn't need any zippers or anything like that, plus it only needs about 2 yards of fabric. I used a soft cotton lawn. At least I think it's a lawn. Voile, perhaps? I really don't know much about woven fabric!

Pattern: Simplicity 2642

In one other piece of sewing news, my baby girl turned six years old the other day. Six! She wanted a Tinkerbell themed party, and of course my first thought was, "Perfect! I finally have an excuse to use that red Tink fabric that I've been hoarding forever." It is a pretty thick fabric, almost like a terry, so I was somewhat limited in my choice of patterns (nothing that needed gathering, etc.). Onion 20026 was the perfect choice!

Pattern: Onion 20026

This pattern, like the nearly identical Mamu Katrin, runs really wide. I first tried removing the side seam allowances, but it was still too wide. I ended up taking it in about 3/4" on each side - still looks a little big! But she was quite happy with the dress (and her party!).