Grace's Dress

This is the dress that I made for Grace. I used this tutorial here. My version isn't nearly so well done. There are quite a few mistakes and many things I will do differently if I ever make another one. Mainly the pleats. I've never really done pleats before and I had a really hard time trying to get them to look how I thought they should. I finally just gave up and sewed it as is. I think though, I understand how to do them now. Next time I'll also sew the skirt higher on the shirt since the weight of the skirt is stretching the shirt out and I don't really like how that looks. I'll also make the sash wider. Grace really likes it though and wears it often and I feel confident that I could make a better one next time.

* I forgot I already wrote about this dress.

Fabric Flowers

This is what I came up with for teacher gifts this year. I used this tutorial and it was fairly easy with one tweak. I tried to do the no-sew method with just gathering the fabric by hand, but the results were not at all pleasing. Instead, I used the sewing machine to run a wide basting stitch down one edge of the fabric and then gathered the material up that way before glueing it on the stem. Grace helped me paint the stems, which was fun to do together. I think they turned out quite nicely and plan at some point to make more for myself. I found the tall skinny vases at Joann's on clearance for $2 per 3-pack. All together the whole thing cost me about $15. Not to bad for 5 teacher gifts!