Saturday Sewing

I spent some of my Saturday afternoon finishing up a few projects.

On my list of things I always wanted to try to to make was a christening dress. I started making two christening dresses a little while back and I finished them up today. I have done a fair amount of sewing dresses and such but this proved to be a bit challenging for me. Most of it was rather easy but when I got to doing the area where the buttons go I messed up many times. I think the dresses turned out beautiful except the button area. Blah! I was actually in tears at times.

The things I had the most trouble with was the little part of the bodice placket that is supposed to overlap the other part and the actual buttonholes. The buttonholes are pretty sloppy looking and I made them a little too small.I also did not trim the seams well enough so the last buttonhole is very thick and bulky. Oh, how frustrating! Oh, yes I forgot the MOST frustrating part! The washable pencils I used to mark where the buttonholes go WOULD NOT wash off! I even followed the instructions and made sure I did not press over the markings.You,bad marking pencils!I eventually got the markings off but it took a lot of work. I ended up using fingernail polish remover to get the markings off. I thought for sure the polish remover would do something goofy to the dress fabric but it was ok.

My christening gown conclusion...what is life without challenges. Sewing would get dull if it were not for frustrating times like this. I do think I would like to get better at the whole buttonhole and placket thing. So I will add that to my list of projects.

Here is the pattern I used. I left off the collar and added a bodice lining to both dresses.







Now do not laugh but here is my horrible buttonhole placket area on this dress. See how crooked it is? The buttons hide the horrible buttonholes.




Here is my second christening dress





This placket area is much straighter than the previous dress but still the actual buttonholes are not very good.



I did finish my baby/toddler sparkly dragonfly skirt today. This turned out very cute. Tomorrow I was thinking that I would start a part one tutorial on how to make a child's drawstring skirt. It will boost my sewing ego a little after my goofy placket issues today.