Umbrella Dress

I've told you that I went home to Indonesia for two months and I spent several days of the first month to join the sewing class ;)

Not much time, no sewing machine, so much things I wanted  to learn, so I ended up learning to make dress pattern for myself and one for a little girl.  I learned how to measure the body, draw the pattern, cut the fabric, and what I needed the most is how to make the collar.  For sure, I still wanted more but not enough time.  The teacher was so nice, she's very practical and efficient in teaching.  She said that whenever I come home to Surabaya, I can join the class again so I can learn more "_"

So for this umbrella dress, I drew the pattern and cut the fabric there in Surabaya and did the rest here in Mumbai.  I made this for my niece, Tiza, she's now five years old, I really hope it will fit her :)

Lessons I've learned from this project are:

1. If I am about to give the dress in the future, I have to make the pattern in a bigger size
2. I have to really plan what kind of dress I want and not changing the design in between, since I bought limited width of plain green fabric.  So I couldn't trick the length of the frock :( and ended up with put bias for the frock bottom edge
3. Buy the buttons, coordinate thread, or any accessories at the same time I buy the fabric - if you see the snap, there's no single button attached there :(
4. Create a time!  I just finished this dress today afternoon, can you believe that?

Enough now with my story, here's the dress :)

Oh yeaah, this is my second umbrella dress, the first one was red color that's also for Tiza but without collar :)  For sure, I still have to practice more on little girl's dress.  So....

Keep on practicing!

handmade on them

I think I have to show off my niece and nephew photos when they wearing my handmade.
These are Tiza and Jascha in their apron, well forget about the size, I was a real amateur even didn't call home for their size heheheh ... what an aunty :D but they love it and now always willing to help their moms to cook just for the sake of wearing the apron and chef hat. 

Below is Tiza wearing my first peasant blouse, it fits her perfectly.

Tiza again, she's wearing my first properly stitched dress when I joined a month sewing course nearby my home ;)

Then, it's Jascha, he's wearing his PJ ... well I sewed this PJ because my online tutor heheh I meant friend, Phiphi kept on asking me to try sewing one ;) well not bad I think.

Upcycling for Earth Day :D

Celebrating Earth Day?  It's late a little bit maybe but I will say, why not?  You can do it everyday too if you want too :)  Well, I really love to upcycling things, before my hubby laughed at me for doing that, some friends thought I am stingy to spend money to buy proper items for my house.  Since we're still living in a rent house, I don't see any points to spend too much for home accessories :D stingy? Maybe!  Give respect for mother earth? Maybe! Hehehhe....

If you see around my house, I cut a used mineral bottle to keep some pencils.  I cover a fan carton box with a table cloth and use it as a small table.  I broke the mug's handle and glued it again and now I reuse it to keep the toothbrushes.

And I don't stop there, since I have my sewing machine, I've started upcycling old clothes, t-shirt into a doll, jeans into some pouches :)  Today, I have a new peasant blouse out of my hubby's old shirt :)  I made a little bit mistake because I forgot that the shirt got a pocket.  When I realized I had cut it out :(   If I removed the pocket, it won't be good, the fabric behind the pocket will be darker than the other part of the cloth (a dear friend said).  So I chose to keep it and I stitch the pocket so if only if you really look at it closely, you will find out that there's a pocket there.

Peasant Dress for Tiza

Finally I able to finish my dream project, a real peasant dress! After practising to make one for my doll ;) This time, the dress I made for my beautiful and cute niece, Tiza, thinking to send it to her with an apron and a doll specially made by Agnes aunty :)

I got the pattern from Teresa Brady's site, who generously shares the tutorial, thanks Tes! I modified it here and there, I made the arm longer and the dress in an "A" shape. I still found some defects on the dress :( but my MasterJi gave me two thumbs up as a beginner :D She told me to cut the bottom part of the dress a little bit curve instead of straight so the result won't be the sharp at the edge, thanks Sis! I will remember that for my next project, let's see whether Tiza will be comfortable enough wearing it or not *praying mode On* :D Oh yeahh, this is my first creative work together with my sewing machine ;)