Stasia by Gracie May Designs

This has been an incredibly busy sewing month for me. I'm so excited to show you some amazing patterns I was lucky enough to test. First up is the Stasia by Gracie May Designs. The dress pattern was released on Sunday July 13th and is available at a discount for the initial release. The code for the Etsy store is HAPPYRELEASEDAY, and no code is needed over at Craftsy.

This dress sews up so quickly and with a truly elegant design.

Check out the sweet bow.

The pattern is all shown in drawings which I find really appealing.  With drawings it is very clear which side of the fabric is the right side as well as where the stitch lines are supposed to be.  

The back of the dress is super comfy as it is elastic.  Right after we took photos of the dress, B decided she wanted to ride her tricycle to the park.  So off we went and I didn't even bother to change her out of her dress.  Unfortunately there was some sort of commercial being shot so we were not able to play on the playground.  As you can probably guess it lead to a minor meltdown.

I convinced her to come home by promising to push the tricycle home so that we could go fast.  We have one of those tricycles that have a handle on the back. The mini crisis was adverted.

Here are some photos that didn't make it to the dress designer since the dress wasn't in showcased well enough.  These photos were the result of her new favorite game, run-away-from-the-camera.

Ready?

Set.

Go!

The best things about this pattern:

1. Simple and clear pattern

2. Sewed up so quickly

3. Elegant and unique design

4. Comfy because of the elastic back

5. Well thought out construction and sturdy enough to play in

You'll love it too for it's elegance, simplicity, and seriously less than 2 hours to make!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy belated 4th of July!  I hope everyone had a fun and safe Friday.  Our local police posted on their FB site that there were 50,000 people out and about at the beaches.  I completely believe it too given how crowded and congested the traffic was.

Our 4th was pretty laid back.  We didn't even have a BBQ.  I know, blasphemy.  C slept in so I lounged in bed with her while my husband took on the toddler.  Have I mentioned how amazing my husband is?  I spent my extra time in bed thinking about what I wanted to do and decided that the girls just had to have 4th of July dresses. When ideas pop into my head there really is no way of pushing them aside.

I didn't own the kind of sundress pattern that I had in my mind so I made one up.  Unfortunately I don't think I could ever recreate it so the dress is really one of a kind.

I just grabbed the fabric I had on hand.  The quality of the fabric is not so great.  In fact I think the blue was from Walmart and is thin and rough.  But the dress turned out cute and summery anyway.

Of course C couldn't get left of out.  So I whipped up a dress for her.  Thank goodness it fit.  It's a pretty snug fit too.  Whoops.

We had friends staying in a water front hotel so they invited us to watch the fireworks on the roof pool deck.  It was the best view ever and we were pleasantly surprised at how well C did.  I expected her to lose her mind since she startles at loud noises.

What?  I'm a delicate flower baby.

We were sharing the deck with a large party.  We believe the party was a rehearsal dinner.  How awesome must it have been for them to have fireworks at the end of their party?  The part that was awkward was listening to the intimate speeches about the people that we have never met.  I tried, really I did, not to eavesdrop.  I now know more about these people than I could ever wish to know.  Karen and Raj Raj, I wish you both a happy marriage with your love of ordering all the items off a menu, watching loads of HGTV, and boozing.  Always the boozing.

We know this much.

In the end everyone had a lovely time and I hope you did too.

Scalloped Princess Dress: Ariel's Day Out

I'm so excited to show off B's latest dress!  I'm participating in Lydia's first blog tour at Little Kiwis Closet.  For this tour the contributors are all sewing up their version of the Scalloped Princess Dress.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's creations.  These are all super talented women and I'm so honored to be showcased among them.  Also check out the link at the end of the post for a fantastic giveaway opportunity!

This pattern is the perfect canvas to be creative and create any princess dress.  It has great options for bodice necklines and hemlines so it is easy to find the combination that you want.  The instructions are clear and the pieces sew together easily and beautifully.  The dress is a lovely fit for B.  I followed the sizing of the chest rather than the age.  (B usually wears size 4 but her chest measurement indicated that she should be in a size 3.)      

The main difficulty I had was my own fault.  I decided to get direction from my customer.  Bad idea.  My customer is fairly exacting and terms like "inspired by" don't go over well.  Mostly because she doesn't understand them or the point of having an "inspired by" dress.  Consequently, I had to figure out how to add long sleeves and my very first cuffs.  My initial thought was to draft sleeves but then I got too scared because the rest of the dress was too cute to ruin.  I ended up modifying sleeves from another pattern.  The bonus was that it came with instructions on how to attach cuffs.  

Check out my beautiful sleeves!

The other difficult part for me was that for the black part of the dress was a thick cotton.  It made it more difficult to top stitch the princess V bodice hem to the skirt.  If I had followed the recommendation to sew in a gathering stitch I would not have had to rip out my stitches so many times.  Good thing the fabric was so thick it could handle that kind of abuse.

If not for the issues I self generated, the dress would have been super quick to sew up. As it was it only took a few evenings. One of my favorite parts is the back of the dress. Look how sweet that scoop back is! It's so darling for the little princess in your life.

 As soon as I put this dress on her she would not take it off.  She insisted on wearing it to dinner and got marinara sauce on the cuff.  Such is the life of a princess dress!

Admit it, if you had a twirly dress, you would twirl too!

I can't leave the post without an adorable baby photo. So here's baby C with more food on her hands and face than in her belly.  I could just nibble on those sticky cheeks all day.

Where's my princess dress?

Be sure to check out Shelly's dress at Sew Shelly Sew and don't forget the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway