school holiday sewing and McCalls M5835

Yesterday was the first official day of the holidays! Woo hoo! We baked some scrolls, relaxed at home (made easier because one little person had a fever and was throwing up so we weren’t going anywhere), got through some laundry, braved the outside after finding a red belly black snake out there on sunday and I got some sewing done at the rare moment that my 3 littlest ones were sleeping.

I picked up this pattern on eBay a year or so ago because I love a flutter sleeve and ruffle. And this has a double ruffle at the bottom of the dress…..even better. The fabric is from my stash and was purchased at a closing down sale. It’s called Town & Country and is by Lewis & Irene. Apparently the range came out in 2014. A little tip when you are buying fabric from a range is to buy 2 from the same range because often you need a contrasting fabric or a ruffle or want to use leftovers of the fabric for another project.

I cut out the dress on Sunday and put the main dress part together. On Monday I took some time to put it all together. Oh boy the bodice was killing me. I got the exterior of the dress is all sorted but once it came to the lining it didn’t work out and I had some excess fabric on each side. I’ve done older style patterns with bodices and lining before and I was desperately trying to remember how my sewing teacher taught me to put them together. This morning (After I had spent an hour on the bodice and finished the dress) I did some research online and found there is even a blog post for the pattern to help you with the bodice. Just read here.

Anyway the dress is just gorgeous. The double ruffle down the bottom gives the dress some weight and it was worth all the fussing around with the bodice. I have a little girl who only wears dresses and skirts so I’m going to make the bodice (the new way) and whip up another one. I always find the 2nd time around is much faster. I definitely give this pattern a thumbs up but only if you follow the instructions for the bodice from the link above or your own method and not the pattern. Another bonus was no button hole, just sew on a cute button and make a loop from thread.

I’ve been absolutely loving my new machine, it’s sewing beautifully. I whipped up a drawstring bag, some personalised facewashers and another pencil roll on the weekend for a birthday party and they were a hit. And a huge hit at home because apparently today I’m making drawstring bags for everyone with their name on. I never realised how much fun you can have with embroidering and I think every birthday party will have the present sorted. Growing up I had one of those names where you NEVER got anything personalised!

If you’re on school holidays then enjoy! I unplugged the foxtel before 10am yesterday and it’s out of action for the rest of the holidays. So far so good…………