Saturday, January 21, 2012

Zippered Secret Pocket for Simplicity 2245

When I made this dress, back in October, for my trip to Spain, I put in that lovely, zippered, 'secret' pocket.  It was a great pocket to have and I am very happy to have it.  However, I have to tell you something funny.  When I left Calgary, for Frankfurt, I had no problem going through security.  When I arrived in Frankfurt and was making my connecting flight to Barcelona, we had to go back through security.  My lovely new zippered pocket, set off the detector and I was offered the lovely, full body pat down.  Ugh! I have the invisible zipper up the back and I had my metal hair clip in my hair, but neither of those set it off, just the little zipper, which is located below outer pocket level and hidden. ;)  I guess it had more metal content to it?!  I have another zipper in another dress I made from this pattern.  Too late to change it to a more nylon style.  I might have to make a new one or two and make sure the zipper I put in has less metal to it. :)

The moral of the story is, make sure your zippers that you add to your garments, for traveling through airport security systems, has little to no metal in them. :) 

Happy Travels and Sewing,

Carol

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Toile Style Dress Form Cover

I thought it would be fun to gift a dress form to a certain young lady.  Instead of handing the dress form over, 'naked' I thought she should be dressed up a bit.  I had fun sewing up a dress form cover out of red toile fabric.


This fabric has little stretch to it, so I put a long zipper in at the center back, making it easier to get the cover on and off, in order to personalize the shape of the dress form.

It is my hope this dress form will see lots of use in the years to come. :)

Happy Sewing,

Carol

Happy Birthday To Miss Olivia


It's hard to believe that my baby is now two handfuls!  Olivia was pretty pleased to be celebrating her 10th birthday.  We are so grateful for this incredibly happy girl to grace our home!  She sure is a tremendous blessing to our family.

Olivia asked me if I could make her a particular dress for her birthday this year.  She brought me a dress to show me the style she wanted.  The dress style she chose was the Girls' Regency Dress Pattern.  Olivia has outgrown the current sizing of the pattern, so I graded up the pattern.  Along with grading the pattern up, I was able to add in some extra width and length so Olivia can wear the dress for a while longer, with a few changes.

This was the first time I made Olivia a birthday dress and purchased fabric for it.  I usually 'shop' from my fabric stash, but not this time.  Olivia has become very fond of the colour red, so I knew what colour to make the dress.  The underdress is made from silk noil and the overdress is made from a synthetic lace.  Olivia asked to have a doll cake again this year, so naturally, the doll had to have a matching dress. :)


Miss Olivia had a wonderfully fun day while her mother contemplated where the time has gone.  She's growing up so fast! ;)

I hope I get to continue to make Miss Olivia more birthday dresses throughout the years to come. :)

Good Night,

Carol