Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Summer Dresses and Nightgowns

Now that it's September, it seemed a good time to download all my August photos from my camera. I take my camera with me almost everywhere as I am still learning to use it, but often it is far easier to just pull out my phone to snap a quick (but far less quality) picture. I let my pictures on my camera pile up but it seemed like a good time to get them all off. Actually, I found a mushroom colony in the yard and wanted to take some photos of it and made myself download all my old pictures and recharge my camera battery before the fun of photographing the mushrooms.


So much happened in August - my sisters wedding, back to school shopping, the start of school! Benjamin had a mucocele on his lip that required a few dr appointments, culminating in a (quick, easy, outpatient) surgical removal yesterday. August saw the start of fall baseball season and the preparation for the coming months of hunting season, which makes the boys very happy. I made 7 cape dresses for a friend and finally learned how to construct this Plain style that has baffled me for many years. (remember all those Christian Amish romance novels teen girls read in the late 90's and early 2000's? I read them and had a fascination with Amish style dress that never quite has gone away!) 

I'm still waiting for my treadle machine to come back from the shop. They said it would take 6 to 8 weeks and it's only been, I think, almost four weeks but I am anxious about it. I keep having nightmares that I get it back and it's missing a part, or that they cannot fix it (even though the only thing it needs is a belt!) or that, worst of all, it never comes back. 


I've made more masks this past week but haven't started any bigger projects yet. I am enjoying not having sewing pressure right now. I did want to blog about the dresses I made the girls in July since I came across them when downloading my August pictures and they came out cute, I think. 


Anyway, Anne's 8th birthday was in late July and they spent the last part of the month with grandma and grandpa. Before they left I made them each a new nightgown and made Anne a birthday dress and, since Anne wanted Rose to have a matching one, and Rose had no objection, a dress for Rose too.


Anne wanted a halter style dress with a full skirt to about knee length. To avoid any fasteners we made the tops out of some stretchy t-shirt fabric and gathered the cotton skirt onto the bottom of a slightly shaped tube. After the halter was finished Anne decided she didn't like the feeling of ties behind her neck so we added loops at the back waistband to thread the ties through, so they can crisscross in the back and tie at the waist. 


To differentiate the dresses, we appliqued two different unicorns on the front bodices; Anne chose hers and Rose had the other. They both were thrilled with their new dresses and have worn them very often since we made them. Although, in these pictures, they look less than thrilled - they had been bickering about something and were not at all pleased about the idea of taking pictures together! 😂





The nighties are made from a modern Simplicity pattern I picked up at Wal Mart. It's for a loose dress and the shape was right for the idea of nightie I had in mind. I probably didn't need a pattern for such a simple garment but it definitely made the project faster since the sizing was already worked out. We eliminated the center back opening since our material was soft and stretchy and I finished the neckline with a band and the sleeves and bottom with a simple hem. The girls liked having matching nighties to take with them and they still wear these a lot, although it's been getting cooler at night and they are pulling out their flannel pajamas pants already. 


So far this week it has been very rainy and so humid that it feels like it must be hot, but it's actually not. So far school has gone well for all the children and they are settling in very nicely, except Malachi has found that he does not like band class. Rose had her first music class two days ago and was so excited that she was able to talk into the microphone and tell everyone her name! She has a new little friend named Candace and she chatters to me all evening about the things her and Candace do at school. 


Next week is fair week so they all are off - even though, this year, we have pretty much no fair. 4-H judging is all being done remotely for the things my kids were/are involved in and the only people showing at fair are those who have animals. But, the kids still get the week off school and they are not complaining. 😂



Much love,

Sarah 

3 comments:

  1. Sarah, You are such a talented seamstress. It's a treat to see the treasures you sew. Your girls are precious. Blessings and may you have a sweet Autumn. d

    ReplyDelete
  2. I miss sewing so much! Especially historical sewing. I've been going through your blog getting all inspired again! The only problem is I'm pregnant, so starting over with underpinnings and things would be a challenge. haha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Congratulations!!! Oh how exciting! And if the urge to sew something historic is too strong, you can never go wrong with a bedgown or wrapper for pregnancy - and it works for regular wear too!

      Delete

Thank you for your lovely thoughts!