Gingercake

217 Dresses! A Coupon Code and Other Ramblings...

Did you all see that 217 dresses were made for the Dress A Girl Around the world sew along?!!  That is awesome.  Although, there were a ton more dresses that I loved, here are a few of the beauties...

Dress #7 for Dress a Girl Around the World, 2. vintage flower pillowcase dress, 3. IMG_3721, 4. Pillowcase dress # 2, 5. Dress a Girl Around the World, 6. Dress-a-Girl #5, 7. Dress, 8. Last one!, 9. Reversible Pillowcase Dress" 

I just love the thought of 217 girls getting a dress.  Great job Vanessa!  The whole thing was so fun and I feel really fortunate to have been part of the planning and help.   As a big THANK YOU to all the friends who participated (or if you are still planning on making a dress!)  I made a coupon in my big cartel shop for 30% off all my patterns.  That means each pattern is only $4.20!   Enter the coupon code DRESSAGIRL to get the deal.  This will last for one week from today, March 17th to next Thursday, March 24th.

In other news, I am busy busy busy sewing up items for the Handmade arcade that I will be part of on April 16th.  

My sister is coming to help me!  I am not the best at "production" sewing so the seam ripper is seeing TONS of action which is pretty frustrating.  But, yesterday I made 20 of these and no seam ripping required!  

Outside my daffodils are coming up!  Remember this post?  This picture is my Happy Saint Patricks day contribution!

This is the time of year where I get pretty gung ho about gardening.  I am following my friend Kristi's posts about getting her seeds started.  If you are interested in starting seeds for your vegetable garden, this is an excellent series since it is down to earth and simple.  I have a bunch of perennials that I am going to divide and I was wondering if any of you would be interested in hearing about that kind of information?   I would think sewers are interested in flowers too, right??   Let me know! 

Lastly, my kids were wondering this morning where their St. Patricks day gifts were.  REALLY?  I guess you can't blame them for trying but seriously,  are people giving gifts to kids on St. Patricks day now?   Anne said, "you know, mom, just a bag of candy or something!"  Sometimes I feel like saying, "Every day you are a kid with me taking care of you is a gift!"  But I don't since they are actually pretty nice kids...

 

 

Dress A Girl Around the World Treasures Pocket Tutorial

I have known for about a month that I was going to do a pocket tutorial for Vanessa's sew along.  I have been really excited to participate!  Until yesterday afternoon I was just going to do a simple pocket with rick rack around the edge.  Now, I'm sure our grandmas knew that rick rack could make ironing under an edge super easy but it was a great discovery for me when I was making my apron (the full tutorial will be on Whip Up March 12th!) a few weeks ago.  Yesterday, due to events happening at my own house,  I decided to add some room to that pocket!

My kids are really into finding "treasures" around the house.  The treasures include hooks, rocks, keys, buttons, safety pins, chops sticks, toilet paper rolls and drill bits.  I was making my pockets and the kids were fighting about a certain new "treasure" they found.  I wondered if maybe the girls we are making dresses for might collect treasures?  I would think every child would delight in finding a special item that we adults disregard.  I decided to change the pocket to accomdate more favorite things.  

 Before we begin the tutorial, I will tell you a bit about this dress.  This fabric is from my sister's college duvet cover and I think it was from Ikea.  I have saved it all these years since the fabric is so soft and I love the print.  I am not really in the habit of saving things like that but I made an exception for this one!  One side of the cover was the "stripes" and the other a criss cross pattern.  (Make sure to keep your eye out at the thrift store for linens that can make great kids clothes!  The fabric is often really nice!)  I made my own bias tape for the arm holes and ties.  It took longer but using nice fabric for the bias tape is delightful to sew with!  The rick rack is not an exact match and I let that bother me for about 1 minute.  Who is going to be looking that close??  Now let's make that pocket...
 
Begin by printing out the pattern and cut it out.

Download Treasures pocket 

Choose your pocket fabric and use the pattern to cut out a piece of fabric.  Choose a matching piece of rick rack (medium size about 1/2" wide) that measures 14" long.

Iron the top of the pocket back and over 1/4" and then 1/2".  Sew across the folded top edge.

Sew the rick rack on the RIGHT side of the pocket like in the picture below.  The 14" piece of rick rack should easily have  extra on each end.

Go over to your ironing board and you will see how easy it is to iron under the edge with the rick rack on!  A perfect curve!  No tucking and burning your fingers!  See the picture below.  Tuck that extra rick rack from the top into the fold you made where the curved edge and the flat top come together.  Pin.

Now to do your ruching.  This is my new favorite trick!  You will be wanting to try this on all sorts of things if you haven't done it before.  Cute a piece of 1/4" elastic to 5".   

In the picture below you will see where to place the elastic to begin.  I found the best place was over the seam you made for the top of the pocket.  Move over to your sewing machine and secure the elastic here by doing a backstitch a couple of times.

Now, gently pull on the elastic and begin sewing slowly (but not too slowly!).  Move all the way across the top edge of the pocket.  Be confident!  Your fabric will gather up behind the foot as you go.

Once you have gone all the way across, do another backstitch and cut your threads.  Now your pocket will look like this! 

Move over to your ironing board and iron the pocket flat.  

Cute!  Don't worry, it's supposed to poof up like that.  Now take the pocket over to your dress and find the place you want to put it.  I like the idea of the pockets being closer to the side but still a little in front.  I placed mine about 7" from the hem of my dress.

 Pin the pocket onto your dress.  Give it just a little stretch at the top corners to make the shape a little more even.  See the picture on the left.   Make sure you only get the top layer of the dress.

Back over to your sewing machine and sew the pocket on.  It should gap a little open.  Finished!

 
Make sure to upload your dresses to the dress a girl around the world sew along flickr pool!   Thank you so much Vanessa for including me in your sew along!  I've had lots of fun.

 

Second dress is for the Lack of Sunshine

If you kind readers haven't noticed, I complain A LOT about bad weather.  You may ask yourself, "Why oh why does she choose to live in Pittsburgh??"  2nd only to Seattle for lack of sunny days!  It's for the love of my hubby, friends, and here in Western PA is where we will stay.  Today was HIDEOUS: rain, wind, sleet, 30 degrees.  But I did manage to make a sunny daffodil dress for Dress a Girl Around the World Sew Along.  These 2 pictures are of the front and the back.  HA!  Either could be the front or the back according to how the little girl wants to wear it!

Those pictures took some MAJOR photo editing to get them looking bright.  This was another pillowcase from my vintage pile.  I am thinking from the 60s?  The graphics are so cool.  I love a huge scale like this, don't you?  I did an easy ruffle with the extra fabric.   

The ruffle took longer than the rest of the whole dress!  I also followed Vanessa's tutorial and made it 22" long and used 1/2" elastic at the neckline.  In my dress yesterday I used 1/4" elastic and this was much better.   Hopefully I'll get one more dress done tomorrow!