datestampJan 7, 2010

..:wedding attire:..

Last week, my brother-in-law tied the knot with his beautiful bride
at their lovely wedding in Phoenix. As the youngest of five, he has
the good fortune of being the "cool" uncle to 11.5 adoring
nieces and nephews.
I am not quite sure why I volunteered to take on the
daunting project of outfitting these wonderful
children. I think it had to do something with
the fact that black/white/periwinkle are nearly extinct hues
for youngsters during the winter months. Also, it
is quite difficult to find coordinating dress-wear
for the age range of 9 months up to 10 years old.
And, maybe I kind of wanted to take on the challenge.
I blame it on my independent, oldest child, Idahoan
nature that makes me do such things to myself.

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Here is the whole motley crew, in what can only
be called a miracle shot, being that they are all
together and happy. Even if they are all looking
at different cameras.......
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My niece, Abigail, was happy to strike a pose. She is
a natural in front of the camera, I found.


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Here are the girls (minus one very hungry baby).
Please disregard my daughter's navy flower, I have some
color issues. Also, I thought it would be fun to mix
things up with two in skirts and the others in
dresses but after seeing them all together,
I think all dresses would have been the way to go.
I used a simple vintage A-line dress pattern, added a slight
mock-neck collar and some puffy sleeves, and some bias trim
for a contrasting hem.

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And, the boys. I made their ties using this tutorial. It was my first time with ties
so they weren't perfect but I found the instructions easy
to follow and I will definitely try it again. My little
guy got a bow tie which was surprisingly easy, a good thing
since it was a 1 a.m.-night-before-leaving-project.

Now, I think I am going to send my beloved Bernina on a little
vacation. At least for a few months because I really
thought she was ready to blow at some point in
mid-December.....


6 comments:

Raw Redskins said...

Oh my gosh! seriously I am flying out there and you are teaching me to sew that is unbelievable you have some mad skills! I love that fabric too.

Brett and Amy said...

I don't even know where to begin. You are amazing. It would be my years greatest accomplishment to crank out 1 of those dresses, let alone all those. And so if I'm understanding this correctly, you didn't use a pattern? Oh, yeah, "a basic A-line to which I just added a mock neck, some puffy sleeves, and trim, and..."
Putting all your amazingness aside, I also wanted to say I think you're wrong. The skirt is perfect. Besides that it is just darling, I think the fabric pattern would've been overwhelming if it weren't for the skirt and solid tops mixed in. So there. You're wrong. Well, I guess not the first time, but your second guessing is.
Now that you're an accomplished seamstress in sizes 9mo -10 yrs, how about one in my size?

Amy Eagleston said...

What the heck? Who are you? Seriously? I am more than impressed. There aren't words. I love all of the outfits. So super cute and the fact the you sewed them just blows my mind!

Sina said...

You should be so proud - seriously, totally amazing. They all look so cute and put together. Just lovely. I would love to learn how to make those ties - you'll have to give me a few tips.

Ruth H. said...

Reese,

Nicole Cleverly just told me about your blog. I am so impressed with your sewing skills! I used to think I hated sewing, but as my girls get older I've realized that it may just be a survival skill--cute & modest dresses are expensive! Now that I've started sewing for "real", I've discovered that it is actually sewing with a pattern that I hate....if I can use an online tutorial and just measure out fabric, I'm good to go!

Anyway, you've inspired me! My mom has boxes and boxes of vintage patterns--I can't wait to look at them and see what treasures I'll find.

So, I have a couple of questions for you. Did you use ribbon on the hemlines of these dresses in place of a traditional hemstitch? Is the skirt just a basic twirly skirt? If so, how did you keep the sash on? Is it just tied? And for the boys' ties, did you have to use different measurements than the tutorial suggested, depending on the size of the boy?

Thanks for sharing your talent!

Reese said...

Thanks for all the nice comments!
Ruth--to answer your question, I just made my own bias trim for the bottom of the dresses out of solid black. The twirly skirt has got a double layer and I used a variation of a pattern I found online, I think I posted a link on an earlier twirly skirt post. As for the ties, I used the pattern straight from the tutorial I linked to and then shortened the pattern for the smaller boys and tied it around a strip of fabric which velcroed around the neck....not terribly clear, I know but it was one of those late night light bulb moments and I didn't use a pattern!