Atelier Mama

We've hit that point of winter during which the cold (-18F yesterday), just really gets old and you start dreaming of spring and summer, or at the very least, temperatures in which you can step outside without the snot literally freezing in your nose.

Since I know we've got a couple months of winter remaining, I am dealing with the mid-season funk by sewing a summer wardrobe for Natasha.  Z will get a couple new things too, but as the younger one, she's cursed with abundant hand-me-downs and doesn't need as much. 

In the last 10 days, I've sewn two dresses for Natasha.  There are tons of free patterns for 2T and 3T toddler dresses floating around on the Internet, and I'm taking full advantage.  I sewed the pink and black one using the Beginner Jersey Dress tutorial from prudentbaby.com.  I added a sash since I was using woven fabric for the bottom, and the join is a bit bunchy. 

My favorite thing about this dress, besides the fact that it is ah-dorable, is that the top is made out of an old shirt of mine.  I loved this shirt, but I recently had to come to terms with the likely fact that it will never fit me again.  Back when I was pregnant with Natasha and Jeremy was in Afghanistan, I used to put on this shirt every Tuesday morning and take a picture of my belly to send to him.  Here I am at 11 weeks pregnant, smiling because I thought I was showing.  Silly girl.

And here is the finished dress.

Next, I made this dress using the Ella Dress tutorial from livingwithpunks.com.  The matryoshka doll fabric (a Japanese import ordered from Etsy.com) is pretty sheer, so I lined the bodice with pieces of one of Jeremy's old dress shirts.  I had to play with the tutorial since I was adding lining, and I ended up not using bias tape for the neckline.  I think it turned out fine.  The arm holes were still unfinished when I photographed Natasha in the dress, but then I made my own bias tape out of more matryoshka fabric (my first time - success!) and you can see the finished dress below.