Baby dress with Asian Fabric and ruffled panty

Here is a dress I made for Baby Gigi with some of the fabrics I bought downtown last week. I used  a store bought pattern, Butterick 5017. The drawing of the pattern showed the skirt to be more gathered than the dress really is.

Who can resist a ruffled baby pant. This is the only stage in life when ruffles on the butt actually look good!

A pensive moment. You can't believe how hard it is for a baby who doesn't walk yet to stand still for a moment. Crawling doesn't really show off the outfit.

Here is a shot from behind. Next time I make this dress I will increase the gathering of the skirt . The asian looking fabric was a real bargain. It's by Roxy Quicksilver and was only 2 dollars a yard.

Simplicity 2405 adding a neckline insert for modesty

Pattern envelope

Low gaping neckline

Addition of a fabric panel.

I shirred the panel with narrow elastic on the wrong side.

I added a braided trim to cover the stichline from the added modesty panel. 

The finished result. It looks good on Isabelle but it was a disaster to make!
I decided to make a maxi dress from some really interesting Anna Sui Fabric I found on sale. I bought  Simplicity Pattern  2405 and based on my measurements I should be a size 12. Well when I sewed it up it was huge! Of course I was too lazy to make a test pattern from some cheaper fabric so I ended up having to take it in about 4 inches from the sides and this threw off the fit of the whole garment. To top it of the bustline was too low and gaping  so I had to figure out how to add some kind of panel . I came up with the idea above. Once I attached themodesty panel I noticed there were some cheap looking stichlines around the neckline which I wanted to hide so I fashioned a braid to sew on by hand to cover the stitchmarks.
The conclusion I have come to regarding store bought patterns is that by the time I finish correcting all the mistakes on the fit of the pattern I might as well build a garment from scratch. I pulled out my old patternmaking books from FIDM and I bought a  new book called: Design It Yourself Clothes and I am going to be making more original patterns from now on. Commercial patterns never seem to fit right, sorry Simplicity!

Los Angeles Fabric District Field Trip

Thursday I took my girls down to the LA Fabric District to buy some new fabric for upcoming projects

A stop at the FIDM scholarship store where you can find incredible deals on trims and fabric

Some beautiful cottons at Micheal Levine

You can't go to the Fabric District without stopping for a bacon wrapped hot dog topped with Avocado salsa

The corner of 9th and Maple

You can get cash, feathers, AND a Tiara in one stop!

Laying out my 3$ a yard cotton

Walking down Maple

Trims at Kashcool on 9th Street

Using up my fabric stash

So I'm planning on going to the Los Angeles garment district tomorrow to do some fabric shopping. I can't help but feeling a little guilty because I already have so much fabric as you can see. A lot of it I have been picking up over the years at Flea Markets or thrift shops and various trips to the garment district downtown. But not much of it is actually that great for making grown up clothing. Quilting cotton is wonderful for children's clothing because it's so bright and durable but I'm not that crazy about the drape for my own clothes.There are some fun projects in this great book I just got from Amazon called One Yard WondersOne-Yard Wonders: 101 Sewing Fabric Projects; Look How Much You Can Make with Just One Yard of Fabric!. I could use up some of the fabrics I'm not that crazy about by making shopping bags for the grocery store. I need a new shower curtain and I would also like to cover my vintage ironing board with something cute and colorful. It's a beautiful old wooden board but it has an ancient stained cover on it which is getting a little too dreary for me to handle as you can see from the photo above. Maybe the fabric can be used to make some quilts to donate to my kids' school for the fundraiser this fall. Does anyone have any interesting ideas?

Sunday Morning Crepe recipe

Crepes are really easy to make and somehow have a lot more panache than your average puffy pancake. Here is an easy recipe:

1. 2 eggs
2. 1 cup milk
3. 1 cup flour
4. 2 tablespoons melted salted butter

Put everything in a blender and mix.
Heat a flat cast iron pan coated with Pam. Put about 1/3 cup mixture in pan . Pick up pan to spread runny mixture around pan evenly. Flip crepe when browned.
Put the crepe on a plate and place a couple of tablespoons of your favorite jam in the middle. My homemade nectarine recipe is pictured.
Fold the crepe in half . Fold in half again and put a napkin around it.
Yum!

Day at the Ventura County Fair

Today I took my girls to the Ventura County Fair to see how our entries did. If you remember one of my earlier entries Lily made a quilt to enter. Today was dollar day so it seemed like half the world was there. We were lucky to nab a free parking spot about a 5 minute walk from the fair.One of the things that really struck me today were all the really vibrant and saturated colors everywhere.

A colorful ride
The required clown. My baby didn't seem to mind him although I was terrified of clowns as a child!
A colorful display of fishbowls. Luckily Lily didn't win one. She already has a Beta fish.
4-H girls waiting to see how their guinea pigs did during the judging. Aren't they spiffy?
The girls up on the swing.
Lily with her quilt that won first place, YAY !!!
Above and below my sibling dresses which got third place.

The cupcake dress won second place

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