Mission acomplished

Saturday November 4th was going nice and quiet. I was getting things done around the house and taking in some reading. Then, in came a new mission:

My wife: "Well, I'm doing something different" Me: "What?" Wife: "My D.A.R. Chapter wants me to be in the Veterans Day parade next week." Me: "Sounds fun, what are you going to be doing?" Wife: "Just walking in the parade, except I dress up in a "Colonial" dress." Me: "Where are you going to get that?" Wife: "They have ones available, oh and they want the girls in it as well." Me: "In costume?" Wife: "No, just dressed patriotic" Me: "Okay, so what's your plan for that?" Wife: "I have no idea ..."

The task was set; create a patriotic outfit for two little girls to wear while riding a float amongst a bunch of ladies dressed in outfits that are supposed recall the fashions of two hundred years ago.

And, we have one week to do it.

Halloween being just over gave me my first inspiration. My eldest daughter had wanted to be "Cinderella", which to her meant, "make me a blue dress". That was easy as I had a pattern already on hand for something appropriate.

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would form the foundation. Next, we headed off to JoAnn's to check out any *old* leftovers from Independence Day. We struck gold with some cotton print with a flag motif in the $2 rack. I added a couple yards of lace, just in case.

Getting home, it was time to get creative, and out-of-my-depth. I wanted to lengthen the bodice down to the natural waist instead of the empire waist in the pattern. We needed to add long sleeves (too cold for bare arms) and add a contrasting collar to make the whole thing less overwhelming around their face. I'm not really sure what I'm doing at this point, but I lay out the original pattern pieces on some butcher paper and start drawing lines where I think they should go. By Saturday night, I have a pattern.

Sunday was church, cleaning house and football, but a little bit of time was available to get one bodice cut out and sewn up to prove that it fit. It did. Whoa. Adding sleeves to the bodice proved that I was on the right track there also. Still, I had nothing for the collar. I cut out a square and sized it to look okay. Then laid out the bodice pattern pieces and figured out what the neck opening should look like. I tried the result on my youngest and seemed okay. Cut two pieces, added lace, sew up, attach. Hey! It works! More whoa. (In hindsight, I should have added some interfacing to the collar to give it more body. Oh well, lesson for the next project)

Once the week was underway, time became precious. Between work, homeschool and sleep, there's not a lot left for creativity. I put my wife to work cutting out skirt panels, whilst I got the second bodice and sleeves together. By Friday, I was hemming skirts and sleeves and the girls were going wild with anticipation. We had done it. The girls had blast tossing candy from the float. Daddy got lots of compliments from the other D.A.R. folks and the girls insisted on wearing their dresses the entire day.

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Reply to
Charles Jones
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Perfect! :)

Reply to
Kate Dicey

Really great looking dresses and the models are gorgeous. Thanks for sharing. Emily

Reply to
CypSew

Adorable little girls! and how proud they must be of you.

Doreen in Alabama

Reply to
Doreen

snip

Kirsten Sollie

Reply to
Kirsten Sollie

Wow, Charles, I am very impressed. We don't get many fathers here who sew for their daughters. Congratulations!

Beverly

Reply to
BEI Design

You are a great Daddy. Your girls are adorable. I can see why they wanted to wear the dresses all day. Juno

Reply to
Juno

Thank you. Yes, they are convinced that Daddy can do anything, which is a reputation that becomes harder to live up as they grow up.

Reply to
Charles Jones

Thanks, Beverly and others. I guess I've never really introduced myself, although I've been lurking for about a year.

I am pretty new to sewing, although it isn't new to me. Mom sewed when I was young, and I played on the floor of her sewing room a lot while she worked. My engineering tendencies meant that I was always interested in the mechanics of her tools, but I never really paid much attention to the products being made. I still remember being fascinated with the buttonholer for her Singer 401 ... :-)

A long time later, after I was married, we bought a simple Bernette 50 machine so my wife (Jennifer) could put together a baby quilt. That project led into me making roman shades for a new house, and *that* gave me the confidence to start making skirts for the girls. They like long skirts (as Brianna, the youngest, says, "I want them to cover my feet!") and there are darn few available for purchase. Success in that endeavor meant the placement of an order for Halloween costumes ... and farther down the slippery slope we go!

It is a lot of fun, although the road ahead is long. I am getting familiar enough with what I am doing that I can now recognize the shortcomings of the machine itself. I have been sucked into watching Project Runway on TV. I even have a stash started; although most of it is material for skirts, there are three purchases of stuff that falls into the "I *know* I'll find some use for this *someday*" category.

My next hard decision: a new machine or a copy of Wild Ginger pattern making software ...

Reply to
Charles Jones

Jean

Reply to
Jean D Mahavier

Welcome!

I'm *still* fascinated with mine, and use that attachment (and the 401a) regularly.

Have fun with it, no matter what you decide.

Beverly

Reply to
BEI Design

What a great job, Charles! You really got the plan down and executed it flawlessly! Way to go - and the kids are adorable!

-Irene

-------------- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.=20

--Mae West=20

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Reply to
IMS

One thing that makes going with the pattern drafting software a nervous choice, is my own inexperience. Having the pattern pieces is just half the battle; there is the order of construction, tips about techniques to use, suggested fabrics and so forth. Memories of rants by my Mom remind me that patterns sometimes (often, always? :-) ) have erroneous or at least less than optimal instructions. Still, if you're setting out from the land of ignorance, then even a poorly drawn map can be somewhat useful.

Maybe there's a good book that could address the absence of instructions?

Reply to
Charles Jones

Lots of them! For instance, and in no particular order, Sewing for Dummies, Readers Digest Sewing book, Vogue, Good Housekeeping, Singer, all sorts of them. Your best plan would be to go to your local free public library and talk to the nice librarian. First, see what they have on the shelves, then fill in any gaps on Inter-Library Loan (they may charge a dollar or so for that) then browse through all those big fat books and see which one speaks your language. Most of them are available in big box bookstores or online, and many of them can be found in secondhand shops or at rummage sales - I have scored several of them for $1 to $5 each. Different ones have different strengths, it is not unusual for me to consult three or four of them if I have something tricky on the go.

I have the software because I got tired of altering commercial patterns to fit me, but you might possibly prefer to try a few of them when the fabric stores have $1 sales. Your call.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Reply to
Olwyn Mary

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