When my daughter first saw a photograph of the Analise dress, she absolutely had to have one for herself. She repeatedly asked me to sew it for her, and I caved in to the pressure.

It wasn’t much of a hardship. On the contrary, it was a lot of fun to make, and it was the perfect project with which to get my feet wet working the serger. Look at all those seams! So much finishing to do…

I was surprised at how much shorter it turned out than the one photographed on the cover of the pattern book. I thought it would hit mid-shin, but this is more of a knee-length dress. Next time, I’ll make it a size larger than I think necessary, just to add the length–and I’ll make just the skirt. She’s more of a skirt girl than a dress girl. I’m not sure why, but there you have it.

Short or not, it’s a wonderfully-full twirly skirt. Every little girl needs one of these! So much fun.

And there’s a great big wonderful bow on the back.

To insure that Claire would actually wear this when it was done, I enlisted her help in picking out the fabrics. Together, we came up with a combination that reminds me of the romantic artwork of Beatrix Potter–delicate motifs worked in soft pastels. So very, very sweet.

One major problem arose while my sewing machine was in the shop. I traced and cut out a lot of projects. When I say “a lot”, I mean a dozen or so. There are pieces of tissue paper and fabric EVERYWHERE, and I feel like I need about three of me to tackle all of them to restore some order here.

Just for fun, I thought I’d show you the tip of the iceberg, i.e. the projects into which I’ve actually put a stitch or two–or simply pinned together.

First, I’m making a Portabello Pixie dress for Claire using some of my mother’s leftovers from a quilting project. The only model I could enlist to show this off was Harry the Rabbit. Now, as cute as Harry may be, he’s just not plump or tall enough to show how voluminous and ruffly that skirt is. It’s going to be one major twirly dress.

I used my new serger to finish the bottom ruffle with a rolled hem and finished the numerous seams with a 4-stitch overlock stitch. It quickly took care of what would have been very tedious work with a conventional machine.

Hurrah for good tools!

Here’s one of the back pockets of the Jalie Jeans I’m sewing. I LOVE the bird. I found the design in an Ottobre Woman magazine and decided to apply it here.

There’s not much left to do on these jeans, but I need to finish up a couple of other projects first.

And here’s a close-up of the fabric I’m using to make the Burda WOF dress I plan on wearing to my brother’s wedding. Isn’t it gorgeous??? You also can see I put my serger to work with another rolled hem. Did I mention I love that feature?

Finally, here’s the bodice of a jersey dress I’m going to sew…whenever I have a chance. It’s another Burda World of Fashion Pattern.

I like the look of the pleats–I’m not sure whether I’ll topstitch them or not.

Before I tackle that one though, I’m considering making another jersey dress using some apple-green fabric I have on hand that matches a fantastic pair of shoes I just found. If I can squeeze that in before next Thursday, when I’m off to the wedding, well, I might not end up being the most dowdy person at the event, lol

I’ll try to post pictures of the shoes and green dress pattern tomorrow!

When my regular sewing machine started showing signs of an immenent breakdown, I started spending time in a local Bernina shop. One of the sales associates was really helpful in helping me to figure out what the problem was with the machine, and how to best set it up for working on my jeans project (mostly done…just 4 seams from the finish line).

It’s no wonder my attention strayed, since I was surrounded by so many shiny new machines. I caved in and bought a wonderful new serger.

The machine is a mystery to me. I’ve never looked at one of these close up, much less attempted to operate it. I have been pouring over the manual and experimenting with different stitches. It’s sooo cool! It made short work of hemming a 5000000000 yard long ruffle I plan on attaching to a dress for Claire. I LOVE the rolled hem stitches.

I’m signed up to attend a serger class this evening and can’t wait. I have a million questions to ask.

As cool as this is, though, I really, really want my regular old sewing machine back. There’s just no replacing a good old-fashioned straight stitch!