50's Style Dress for Verity

Verity and I used to spend a lot of time looking at clothes online.  However, whenever she saw a dress she likes, she now says, "Good.  Let's make it!" and gets angry that I don't drop everything to focus on her current whim.

Last week, we were back to our old game of narrowing search terms on Google Images until we found the perfect dress:

Even I had to admit it was beautiful.  We immediately ordered some pink fabric online (cheap polycotton), and I had to fend off Verity for the next 2 days while she kept asking why we weren't making her new dress yet.

It arrived on Saturday, but I stalled for a day while I cleaned and ironed the fabric.

Sunday morning, while Errol napped, I somehow convinced Verity to sit with me and do measurements and math to figure out our pattern.  She was disappointed that we were doing "special circle math" rather than "special triangle math", and I chose not to go into detail about how the triangle math could be derived from the circle math.  She then helped while we cut the fabric, and did her usual job of handing me pins and unwinding my bobbins while I sewed (at least she only does it with my cheap thread...)

By the time Errol woke up, we had the dress pretty much done.

(including the usual Errol photobomb...)

Verity was a bit disappointed because it didn't give her breasts, but she got over that.  She's barely taken it off since we gave it to her!

Finally, a gratuitous photo of Errol being cute.

Aaaaaand... restarting

I did very little sewing for about 2 years.

I made lots of babies. I changed lots of nappies. I read lots of books. I sang lots of songs. But not much sewing.

Then my daughter hit the "I'm a princess" phase. I had no idea that to be a princess, you have to change your dress every 10 minutes. And only clean, long dresses will do. Preferably expensive dresses.

At first, I tried to diffuse the situation by using an old skirt to make her a mermaid costume for Hallowe'en. I thought it was awesome. Shirring is so cool.

She wore it for a good 30 seconds (while I took the pictures), and then started to scream, because she's a princess, not a mermaid.  The costume went into the dress-up box, and comes out about once a month.

Then she asked for a bridal gown with one armhole.  She was very determined about one armhole.  It wasn't princess-y enough, so I had to make another layer for it.

By now, it was getting cold, and she kept insisting on wearing summer dresses outside.  So I used this tutorial with some second-hand skirts a couple of times (it may not have helped much with keeping her warmer, but I had fun doing it!).  None of these dresses cost more than £3 to make...

Through this work, I cam to some realizations - once upon a time, I enjoyed sewing clothes.  However, fabric is expensive, and you often don't get quite what you want.  Then you have spent a bunch of time and money on something you don't like.

On the other hand, I hate shopping for clothes.  

Shopping for my daughter is a nightmare, because she wants pink dresses with frills and sits down and screams if I buy her anything else.  I have never even tried to take her into a changing room, so size is a crap shoot.  

Shopping for my husband requires a lot of persuasion and pre-shopping so that he can do man-shopping and feel efficient.

Shopping for myself is even worse of all.

1. I would need to get enough time away from the kids to do it.  Not sure when that could happen. 
2. I am a really odd shape & size (this may be true of all women).
3. When I do get something, it often doesn't fit once I get home.
4. I have had 2 babies in the last 3-1/2 years.  I have gone through a lot of sizes in that time.  Anything I bought pre-family doesn't fit.  Anything I bought post-baby doesn't fit.  Yeah, anything I ever buy doesn't fit.
5. I'm cheap. I'll admit it. I hate spending money on clothes.

So, my New Year's resolution was to continue to alter clothing from second-hand stores for myself, my husband, and my kids.  I need to learn more about tailoring and pattern fitting - I suspect that understanding more about my body shape and how clothes fit will help with making clothes I can love.

I am not going to update this blog every day, or even every week.  But hopefully, with time, I'll get a catalog of alteration ideas for kids, men and women's clothing.