Tea Party!

 

Haha, not that kind of tea party!

This kind:

This is the tea party sundress pattern from my favorite (albeit only) pattern company Oliver + S.  I made this a while ago for Babs, my cute little kinda-niece.  I thought this teacup fabric was so adorable and I matched it with some pink fabric I had leftover from a quilt I had made her (she can match her blanket!).  I chose a brown print for the piping in the dress. 

I love these teacups!

The thing I really like about Oliver + S patterns is they don't assume you have extensive knowledge about sewing, which is good since I don't.  This is actually the first real article of clothing that I'd ever made using a pattern.  Even the piping, which was optional and intimidating, turned out to be pretty easy to do. 

Piping up close.

The pattern included this nice finishing detail for the hem.  In my world, you finish a hem by folding the thing and sewing it up but the pattern had you make something called a "hem facing".  I thought it was a tad extraneous but after I made it I congratulated myself on my own brilliance.  It really made the hem look professional and super cute.  

Super cute hem facing!

I was also able to employ my wonderful serger to finish the seam allowances.  This made it look super duper professional.

Mmmm.... serged seams...

 

 

Found these buttons in my button collection.

 And they matched pretty well!

I think making the buttonhole was the most stress inducing part since if you screw it up, what the hell do you do then??

Buttonhole in the right place.  Phew!

 And...voilà!

 Pardon all the glamor shots.  I was pretty proud of this one.

More posts to follow, hopefully before the next millenium.
Byes!