Another One For the Granddaughter

Meet my friend Jacqueline - Jacqueline the Ripper.

An evil looking thing isn't she? But I couldn't get much sewing done without her. Most recently she helped me finish this adorable little dress.

It's another McCall's 9227, view B this time. It's not that it was a difficult pattern; I just kept making stupid mistakes - really hair-brained. But we got through it and in the end it turned out great. The only changes I made this time were leaving off the tie belt and adding elastic at the back waistline and adding side seam pockets. Granddaughter is just like her Nana when comes to pockets. They are a must.

I haven't had the chance to give it to her yet but I know she will love it. It's a style of dress she really likes and this is such a fun colorful print. Click on the pic to make it larger and have a better look at all the crazy stuff going on - little deer, birds, giant butterflies and I'm not even sure what some of this stuff is. So much fun.

A Dinosaur Story

My grandson was about 6 or 7, I think, and in the middle of a serious dinosaur obsession. (Also a shark obsession and an alligator and crocodile obsession; pretty much anything that can kill you horribly he loved) He's a teenager now so this was a while back. I was looking around the fabric department at Walmart, because fabric, and I found a dinosaur print flannel. The background was different size rectangles in red, blue and, if I remember correctly, tan or brown and the dinosaurs were green and brown. Now a normal grandmother would have bought some and made her grandson some pajamas but I'm not normal. My first thought was to make a shirt for myself so I could be the cool grandmother who's not too grown up to wear dinosaurs.

The lady working in the fabric department that day appeared to be about ten or more years older than I was at the time. As she was measuring out the fabric she commented about what a cute fabric it was "for a little boy." I suppose the smart thing to do would have been to just agree with her and leave it at that but I admitted that I was planning to make a shirt for myself. She laughed like that was the craziest thing she had ever heard and said something like, "You must really like dinosaurs." I told her that I like a lot of different kinds of prints and she said, "Well, I guess so," in that tone that suggested there was something definitely off about liking anything other than subdued, tasteful little florals and such.

I made the shirt and wore it for several winters but for the last three or four years I hardly wore it at all and although I still liked it I decided I needed to make some sacrifices to make room in the closet for some new things.

The point of my telling you this story is to observe that for each of us there are things we do not wear not because we ever consciously think, "I do not wear stuff like that," but because it just never occurred to us to choose it even if, in a way, we like it. But once we wear one of those things we do not wear it becomes something we do wear and the next time we come across a cool dinosaur fabric, or whatever, it's a perfectly natural thing to buy it and wear it.

So I found this really cool dinosaur fabric at eQuilter and, naturally, I bought it. It's one of the lighter weight quilting cottons, nice, light and breezy, perfect for summer.

I used McCall's 9065 again. This time, as you can see, I left off the sleeves. I only had to raise the openings about half an inch for modesty. I also made it with an unbanded collar. I had to make a back facing and change the front facing a little bit. The original only goes to the front yoke. For this version I had to make it go all the way to the shoulder seam.

I also made side vents.

You can't really see it in the photos but I used gold color thread, exactly the color of the gold dinosaurs, for the topstitching around the collar, neckline, arm holes, and hem.

I love it. I think this might be my favorite made from this pattern so far. Maybe. It's hard to say. I love them all.

The Birthday Dress

It's been nearly a week since my birthday and I'm finally getting around to showing off the birthday dress, which I mentioned in the previous post.

The pattern... well, I did use the bodice from a retro Vogue pattern because I'm too cowardly to draft my own patterns but I changed it so much it's not really that anymore. The original had center front and back seams and a back V-neck. I made it without the front and back seams because I wanted as few seams as possible so as not to break up this big, fun paisley print more than necessary. And I changed the back neckline, just because. The skirt is a half circle, with pockets of course. Here's that back neckline.

It has a side zipper and it's one of the best I've ever sewed.

See the zipper? No, you don't! Sorry, anytime I manage to not mess up the zipper I'm ridiculously proud of myself for it.

The fabric has a nice stiffness, which I like. It feels sturdy so even though I sewed it as a "birthday dress" it feels like an everyday dress and that's good because I have a lot more every days than I have special occasions.

* * * * *

The birthday was one of those big, round scary ones - 60! - which doesn't seem right at all. I haven't even gotten over being freaked out about turning 50 yet. One of the things I hate about it is that when you get past a certain age people start judging you by your age. Everyone thinks they know what 60 is but they don't, but they will continue to be absolutely sure they do know no matter what you say to them.

On the other hand, when you reach 60 you suddenly have an automatic excuse for, well, senior moments. I have a good memory. Really! Unfortunately most of what I can remember is useless stuff like Kochel numbers, dialog from Star Trek, Firefly, and The Big Bang Theory, and the names and faces of actors that I haven't seen in anything for over 30 years, and if it's not completely useless it's mainly good for pissing people off, like which one of "there, they're," or "their" to use. But you know... it's always been that way. Everyone of every age is occasionally absent minded, but the older you get the more important it is to remember the right things and not screw up so people won't think you're losing your mind.

Well, anyway, the day of my birthday was nice. Nobody made a big deal out of it, which was okay. I got to eat out for both lunch and dinner and I got a small birthday cake. Small is good. And the weather was perfect and I wore the birthday dress all day. Other than being 30 again I couldn't wish for anything more.