In the fall of 2013 I decided to conquer my fear of sewing machines. I know...it sounds weird. I had always been afraid of them. Couple that with not being very awesome at measuring or cutting things and it really didn't seem like something I'd be even remotely good at. The reason I ended up tackling this fear is because I wanted to run a Halloween race in costume. I got it into my head that I wanted to be the DC Superhero Raven...why? I'm still not sure but I liked the costume possibilities. So I set out to buy a cape...or have a friend make a cape just like hers. You see Raven's cape has a beaked overhang on the hood. Of course no one makes an adult Raven costume...I'm still not sure why and my friend who makes costumes was booked (of course I was doing this last minute). So I bought some fabric and hauled out my crappy hobby sewing machine and set to work following this
Cape Tutorial with a little modification for the hood and wound up with this
It was pretty amazing to run in a long cape like that...I had a great race and really enjoyed the fruits of my labor.
So after that I was hooked. I decided to tackle a dress for my daughter's 4th birthday. I mean why not? I purchased a dress pattern
Simplicity Sewing Pattern 2463 Child's Special Occasion, AA (3-4-5-6) and procrastinated until my Mom was in town the week before my daughter's birthday party...I don't really recommend this approach! She helped me navigate my first pattern and with a modification to keep our sanity...(I decided to skip the tulle overskirt) the dress turned out pretty nice and best of all my daughter was delighted.
So that all leads up to my latest sewing project...a halter dress for my daughter to wear this summer. She's a big fan of halter dresses and I had a bunch of fabric that was sitting around unused. So when I found this pattern and tutorial for the
Ava Rose Halter Dress I thought what the heck...let's give it a try. Of course this was me flying solo this time...my Mom is back home in Sunny Florida and I'm fighting off the Minnesota winter doldrums by sewing summer dresses :) This is the end result...I'm pretty pleased with it and my daughter adores it. I made the skirt longer than the tutorial calls for because my daughter loves long skirts. I also left off the ruffle because the fabric had a nice pattern along the bottom that I wanted to keep as is.
I think I've conquered my fear of sewing along with measuring and cutting fabric...I can't wait to start on my next project!
