Well, not really a sew along, unless you somehow have the pattern and want to dive in, but it is more like a follow along.  I thought I would start to document the process of the dresses and things I make so there would be a record of how I create these things and so you can comment (please do) to let me know if there might be a better way.  🙂

Since Scott works for the church, we have know quite a few people.   At any given time, any of them could be having a baby, getting married, etc.  So, there is usually a gift project of some kind in my queue at all times.  This time it is a gift for friends who are having a baby girl.  This is probably my favorite gift to make.  I know you can understand why.  Here is the dress I chose for this project:

I am making dress B complete with bonnet.

I won’t show you how I cut out the pieces, because I rarely follow the cutting diagram (see above), but I do always follow the grain-line arrows on the pattern pieces.  More often than not, I have found this one detail to be of extreme importance.

Before cutting out any of the pattern pieces, I separated out those that would be needing embroidery on them and set them aside.  All other pieces were then cut.  The pattern gives some really wonky instructions for doing the embroidery after the dress (and bonnet) have been partially assembled.  I don’t like this method, so here is how I do this step.

Taking the pattern pieces for the yoke, bonnet, and hem band, I laid them on the fabric and cut rectangles/squares that would accommodate the layout of each piece.  Then I cut and fuse the appropriate fusible webbing to one of each piece of fabric square/rectangle.  Taking that prepared fabric and using a washable marker, I trace the outline of the section of the pattern piece where the embroidery needs to be placed.  Then I take them square to my light table where I can transfer the markings for the embroidery to each piece.  Once this is done, the embroidery can be done on each piece and then the pattern piece can be cut out afterwords.  This allows for the embroidery to be done on a larger piece of fabric that won’t stretch out or become distorted.  It makes for much easier handling.  In addition, if your markings are off, you can then cut your pattern piece accordingly, rather than having to redo the embroidery, etc.

Next post: Embroidery