Dresses!

Okay, so Saturday I spent some time sewing dresses. I had stumbled across patterns from Tenderfeet Stitches on Etsy a while back (have I ever mentioned how many hours I can waste browsing Etsy and wish I could buy everything I fall in love with).  Anyway, several weeks ago I made a couple dresses for Rebeka from the Bubble Ruffle Dress pattern.

I was inspired by the camo pattern Amanda with Tenderfeet Stitches used and I made this dress for Rebeka.

I LOVE the dress.  It is so stink’n cute.  And after it got washed (i.e. reversing the stretching from sewing), it is even more adorable.  that same day I also made this dress for Rebeka.

Same pattern, just different color scheme.  And, yes, I need to work with Rebeka to be a better model.  She truly has a mind of her own and is very independent, which makes her extraordinarily resistant to posing like a sweet little girl for pictures.  Hahah!

For me, sewing has become a source of relaxation and stress relief.  I have truly been enjoying seeing creations come to life through the joining of fabric with needle and thread.  I honestly just love it.

So, with that first pattern, I feel in love with Amanda’s patterns.  She has an awesome way of just making incredibly cute item very easy to sew with very basic instructions.

I began following Amanda on Facebook, and imagine my excitement when she offered one of her patterns to her “fans” for testing.  I had the opportunity to test her new Classic Crossed Bodice Sundress pattern this past weekend.  And, it was awesome.  Here’s the final product of the dresses I made for Rebeka:

And, here is the back of the dress.

After suffering through absolute brain damage while making Rebeka’s dress (ended up ripping out the hem and waist seems three times), ultimately, it turned out amazing.  It way my incompetence, not the pattern, that caused my problems.

Next, I moved on an made a similar dress for my friend Char’s granddaughter.  I had hope to make a couple more dresses, but only had enough fabric for one more that day.  This time I used some pink tule which I added to the skirt.

The dress pattern has been deemed an absolute hit here at the house.  Chet loved it, I loved it, Rebeka loved it, and Char’s granddaughter loved it.  This weekend I’m going to test another pattern for Amanda, I can’t wait.

I’ll give a comprehensive update on Gabriel tomorrow.  In a nutshell, we’re finally getting out heads above water.  These past couple weeks have been so emotionally trying for Chet and I, and I’ve been struggling to avoid a pity party and I just didn’t feel comfortable bearing all the struggles we’ve been feeling just yet.  I guess, I just didn’t feel like whining.  Honestly, so far in this journey, I’ve truly felt blessed and optimistic with all that we are facing.  However, these past couple weeks, my optimism just wasn’t there.

But, we’re doing well.  Gabe has turned some major corners these past couple days, and things are progressing.  We’re officially 3 years from the end of his treatment (okay, 3 years and a couple weeks).  But, we’ve got an end in sight and come hell or high water, we’re going to be having one heck of a party at the end of May, 2014 – mark your calendars.

Oooh, and I almost forgot – Amanda at Tenderfeet Stitches is amazing in so many different ways.  When she learned of our journey with Gabriel, she placed this dress for auction and is going to donate the proceeds to Operation Leukemia Elimination.  How amazing is that?  We are so blessed, blessed beyond words.

Photo from Tenderfeet Stitches.

If you’re interested in bidding on this beautiful dress, you can do so HERE.

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Crafting – Switchplate Covers

So, I’ve seen a lot of switchplate covers that people are making out there – and VERY cute.  But, I wanted to make my own so that I could coordinate things identically with a comforter or duvet cover for Beka’s room.  So, I ventured out and decided to make my own.  I found an adorable fabric that I plan to use as an accent fabric, and that’s what I decided to use for her covers.

I started out with white metal switchplate covers.  I decided to go with the metal due to a nice texture on the face of the plates as compared to the plastic covers and I figured they would be a little more substantial.

I cut out pieces of fabric to slightly larger than the actual switchplate.

Next, I centered the switchplate on the pattern the way I wanted it and then traced the switchplate outline.

After tracing, I cut a small slit in the fabric where the center of the switchplate is and then made diagonal cuts to the line on each corner.  For the tags that are on the top & bottom, I trimmed the point off about half-way so that when it’s applied to the switchplate the fabric doesn’t cover the screw holes.

Then I clipped the outside corners to the line.  After preparing my different pieces of fabric, it was time to start adhering the fabric to the switchplates.  I used fabric ModPog by Plaid.

I followed the directions for applying the fabric to the switchplate.

After gluing the fabric to the front of the switchplates, I then flipped them over and started wrapping the fabric onto the back.  Using the ModPog, I coated the back of the switchplate and began wrapping the fabric over making sure to make it taught and smooth.

To assure that the corners were relatively smooth, I clipped, about at 45-degrees, the cut corners.  I then continued wrapping the fabric all the way around, trimming and clipping excess fabric as needed.

I’m not a perfectionist, so they aren’t perfect.  After wrapping the fabric all the way around, I then put a little dollop of ModPog in each corner and used my fingers to tuck the excess fabric around the corner so that the fabric followed the contour of the curved corners and was smooth on the inside.

Once the glue was allowed to cure for a few hours, then coat with the ModPog and let cure for a couple days for a nice finished product.  Use an awl or other device to pierce the screw holes and then you’ll have a finished product ready for installation.

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