My second finish for the second quarter of the 2017 Finish Along was technically finished first, but who is counting (obviously me, haha.) This was my daughter's Easter dress (though when she wore it for Easter I didn't have the pockets on it yet.) I used a cut of an Aneela Hoey print for the body of the dress and a Painter's Palette Solid (Orchid) for the trim. I had that little lace trim in my stash, which I think added a little something extra. I debated about the pockets that were part of the pattern, and in the end drafted my own little kitty head and hand embroidered the faces.
You can see the pockets better below. I think they turned out adorable and totally Kawaii, which I love. One of the cats is winking because I became tired of doing the satin stitch eyes, great solution wasn't it. Sometimes I'm so lazy.
The image above is how I finished the seams inside, just serged (or is it surged?) the edges to keep things tidy and from raveling as much.
Below you can see another example of my clothes labeling system with the numbers from the selvedges. This time I needed an 18, and since most prints don't have 18 colors, I created an 18 by sewing together the one and eight, turning under the edges and then stitching it to the facing. So this dress is sized 18 months. My daughter is tall so it is a wee bit short, so now she wears it with shorts underneath.
The straps were created from bias tape that I made from the Painter's Palette Solid, made me wish I had some of those bias tape tools, though it was easy enough to create myself.
Below you can see another example of my clothes labeling system with the numbers from the selvedges. This time I needed an 18, and since most prints don't have 18 colors, I created an 18 by sewing together the one and eight, turning under the edges and then stitching it to the facing. So this dress is sized 18 months. My daughter is tall so it is a wee bit short, so now she wears it with shorts underneath.
The straps were created from bias tape that I made from the Painter's Palette Solid, made me wish I had some of those bias tape tools, though it was easy enough to create myself.
So, I mentioned something about a story about PDF's didn't I? Well when it was time to pick a pattern for the Easter dress, I knew right away I wanted to make the Persimmon Dress by Mouse House Creations. I love everything about this pattern, the pleats, the details, all so cute. Nothing was wrong with the PDF, the instructions were great.
I already owned this pattern so all I had to do was print it out and read the directions. Here in lies the problem. Late last year our old computer died on us and as much as that stinks it wasn't a big deal because it was old and I had been regularly backing everything up onto an external hard drive, or so I thought. I opened up the PDF pattern file on the external hard drive to discover that not only was it not there, neither was 90% of the patterns I had purchased through the past two years. Yep, what the heck? I still don't know what happened in regards to that, either the back ups had failed or maybe I forgot to copy that one folder. Who knows.
So now what, because I don't want to purchase it again. Some websites let you log in and download it again, thankfully this was the majority of them as I kept all the emails and details of the downloads. But there were a few that I just couldn't access anymore, either the company wasn't in existence anymore or the download wasn't available. Insert sad face. So I decided to just ask the designers flat out if they would send it to me. What did I have to lose? I had the receipt in email form and explained what happened.
I contacted Hayley of Mouse House Creations and she was on a trip and replied immediately that when she got home she would email it to me and she did. How great is that, honestly. In the end all of those independent designers I have contacted have in fact emailed me the files I had purchased. Which is pretty great and says a lot about our little sewing/quilting community.
Moral of the story? Back up your files people, in not just one spot, but two. It has taken me an entire weekend of emails and sorting and downloading to get back my files and sadly there are about 10% that I won't be able to get back, lost forever on a dead computer.
Second moral of the story? Not only is our sewing/quilting community awesome, reach out and ask, I have come to realize that all of these designers are super helpful and friendly and they want you to make their patterns just as much as you want to make them. So I'll end with a big thank you to Hayley of Mouse House Creations, for not only sending me the file but for creating such a great dress pattern. "Insert Smiley Face, Insert Clapping Hands, Insert Fireworks!"
I already owned this pattern so all I had to do was print it out and read the directions. Here in lies the problem. Late last year our old computer died on us and as much as that stinks it wasn't a big deal because it was old and I had been regularly backing everything up onto an external hard drive, or so I thought. I opened up the PDF pattern file on the external hard drive to discover that not only was it not there, neither was 90% of the patterns I had purchased through the past two years. Yep, what the heck? I still don't know what happened in regards to that, either the back ups had failed or maybe I forgot to copy that one folder. Who knows.
So now what, because I don't want to purchase it again. Some websites let you log in and download it again, thankfully this was the majority of them as I kept all the emails and details of the downloads. But there were a few that I just couldn't access anymore, either the company wasn't in existence anymore or the download wasn't available. Insert sad face. So I decided to just ask the designers flat out if they would send it to me. What did I have to lose? I had the receipt in email form and explained what happened.
I contacted Hayley of Mouse House Creations and she was on a trip and replied immediately that when she got home she would email it to me and she did. How great is that, honestly. In the end all of those independent designers I have contacted have in fact emailed me the files I had purchased. Which is pretty great and says a lot about our little sewing/quilting community.
Moral of the story? Back up your files people, in not just one spot, but two. It has taken me an entire weekend of emails and sorting and downloading to get back my files and sadly there are about 10% that I won't be able to get back, lost forever on a dead computer.
Second moral of the story? Not only is our sewing/quilting community awesome, reach out and ask, I have come to realize that all of these designers are super helpful and friendly and they want you to make their patterns just as much as you want to make them. So I'll end with a big thank you to Hayley of Mouse House Creations, for not only sending me the file but for creating such a great dress pattern. "Insert Smiley Face, Insert Clapping Hands, Insert Fireworks!"
You guys are in luck, I've included a rare shot of my daughter in her dress on Easter. I just had to, it was so cute on her. I usually don't post photos of my children so I must be in a good mood.
The second quarter link up will open in a few days and when it does I'll be linking up this dress as it was project number five from my list found HERE. I hope you will be joining us with some of your finished projects.
The second quarter link up will open in a few days and when it does I'll be linking up this dress as it was project number five from my list found HERE. I hope you will be joining us with some of your finished projects.
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