Finally Inspired to Sew

More than 3 months ago I bought a dress pattern for L. I picked a practice fabric and cut out the pattern pieces, and then it sat.

FINALLY! I was inspired to get some work done. In 2 days I successfully completed 2 new dresses for L's wardrobe, and after a short break I made 2 more!

It was much simpler than I had expected, but with that in mind, I did mess something up on each dress. Haha! 

This was my  tester fabric. Everything was going so smoothly, until it was time to sew the elastic casing for the neck. My brain decided that I was somehow going to sew up ONLY the neck. After getting the front neckline done, I sat baffled on how to connect the back neck piece. Once I realized the elastic goes ALL the way around, I had to break out the seam ripper.  

For some reason, this dress had armpit complications. The casing openings didn't match up at the bottom, leaving a gap in the fabric that the elastic shows through when pulled tight.

More armpit complications! This time the gap was fixed, but I was left with a little hole UNDER the arm, where the body piece connects. It sewed up fine, but, if you're looking closely, it's there.

You'd think by number 4 I'd be a pro. HAHA! Turns out, with time I got WORSE! To start with, I sewed both arms onto one body piece, BACKWARD. Then as I was seam ripping away, I tore the inside layer of an arm piece. After sorting out that issue it should have been smooth sailing. Nope. Someone the neck elastic casing got flipped around and I had to seam rip half of that to fix it. Then while doing the arm elastic casing I didn't leave a big enough opening in one spot and had to seam rip AND cut to get the elastic through. So, not only was it a pain in the butt to FINALLY finish this dress, but it also has the same issue as dress #2.

Before starting dress #4 I cut the pattern out in another fabric. This time in a size 12 month because there wasn't quite enough to make L's size. As of right now, only the arms are attached. The sides are pinned together, but I'm just bored with dresses! 

Dress break projects:

Sewing machine cover! It's nothing fantastic, and very thrown together, but it does it's job. I didn't even hem the bottom. Haha. We have a German Shepard/Husky mix and she is shedding like no other! During those 3 non-sewing months my machine got pretty darn hairy! I figured better late than never on protecting her from dust and fur.

I also made a GIANT pin cushion square. I used some Tinker Bell fabric that has spools of thread on it. It seemed very appropriate. It's a little lopsided, but it works just fine. Plus, it's nice not having to try and pick up pins off of flat surfaces. I also discovered I have about 20 hand sewing needles. I thought I only had 2. Haha!

Last but not least, I made L's baby doll a little quilt! I had 0 fun cutting out the squares without a rotary cutter and self healing mat, but it was SO much easier than I expected. Then again, it was small. 

"L" lined up some buttons for fun. Haha.