a new dress

I sewed a new dress for my little girl.

I really really love it, as you can see by the plethora of photos. There are about 25 more that I'm not posting. :)

It was my first time making a ruffle, which was a little tricky, but definitely worth it.

Is there anything better than a gingham ruffle?

Maybe polka dot trim?

The dress is pretty baggy, so there is plenty of room for her to move, which I like. I may take it in under the arms to help define the shape just a bit more.

I used my new bias tape maker, which I could use a few tips or hints about if you have any to share. I thought this little tool was going to solve all my problems. Ha! I wish.

This is what it looks like when it is ironed. Does it supposed to gap this much? Do you supposed to fold it in half and iron it flat at this point? I'm so confused. This is one reason why I usually don't mess with bias tape.

Anyway, back to the dress. I added snaps on the straps instead of the ties that I used last time.

The white floral fabric came from Lera. The pink and green came from my stash.

The pattern was pretty much made up on the fly.

I do love the vintage-y feel of this dress. If only I could make a version that would look this cute on me.

pink

This quilt is so very pink. I LOVE it. 

It is for my monochromatic quilt series, which has been so much fun. You can see more of the series here. Still to come in the series: red, orange, purple, and brown.

It is all scraps, randomly pieced. 

The pieced back is from my stash. I had bought a green polka dot for the backing, but I changed my mind at the last minute and came up with this instead. I like it because it matches the scrappy feel of the front. Someday, though, I am going to try a contrasting (but coordinating) color for the back of a quilt.

Look at all that random pink goodness. It makes me giddy.

I used the from back to front quilting technique on this. 

Overall, it went very well. I didn't have tension issues using this technique except for one time, and that time was so bad that I would have had to rip out whether it was on the back or the front. I felt like it was easier to quilt it randomly, which was what I was after. Sometimes I think I subconsciously follow the seam lines on the front, and it is hard to keep it random. The one thing that was a little tricky was the bottom (which is the front of the quilt) got puckered a few times along the edges because it was smaller than the top. So I had to do a bit of stitch ripping and then I ended up quilting it from the reverse side. And just a few times there were a few ridges of seams that hung up a bit in the face plate of my machine, but it was pretty minor.

All in all, it was a good experiment and I am glad that I tried it.