A World of Laughter

As mentioned in my last post, the first part creating my sibling set for my nieces and nephew was making the girls' dresses.

For my middle niece L, I made a VFT Ruthie. It was a surprisingly quick & easy make for me! The simple version is mostly rectangles, and although the back button placket and the method used for attaching straps were both new to me, I was able to follow the instructions and get it right without much issue. I had to practice the strap attachment part with pins a few times before I fully understood it, but once I did, it was pretty straightforward.

The only NOT straightforward part was fighting with my button holer foot. That thing tries my patience every time Fortunately, it waited until AFTER the super-fussy round part was done to wig out on me, so I was able to finish my button hole with a simple zig-zag stitch.

Also, I do swear the button hole was parallel to the edge when I first set it up. I love my Janome DC2007 LE, but buttonholes of consistent quality are still a work-in-progress for me.

That said, I was pretty happy with the final product! Fussy cutter that I am, I'll note with pride that the ombre rainbow is consistent across the fabric - the top of the bodice is all one color, but there's a rainbow over the shoulders. And, even if it *weren't* for the intentional tie-in to big sister's VFT June, I'd still love the bows on the back- they're so unexpected, feminine, and fun.

But Speaking of Big Sister V's June....

I did skip button closures big sister's dress, opting instead for an elastic back that can be easily replaced if this dress makes it to another generation. Below I'm showing the back of the dress first for easy comparison.

The ties on the back of the June were an adventure - they were tiny and the instructions suggested that to get the right look, they need to be hand-turned. So *that's* 2 hours of my life I will never get back. But lesson learned, next time I will just use the fold-and-topstitch method employed by the Ruthie to make my straps.

I also ended up making the bodice twice on this one - the first time I misread my pattern when I traced it, and made the back too small. This pattern does have layers, and in retrospect it would have been smart to use them.

But, I'm still pleased with the overall result - the second bodice turned out as I had hoped, and although sewing the skirt to the elastic back bodice required some fussing everything came out pretty nicely in the end.

And that's two woven dresses, completed. For the next installment, I'll talk about little brother's romper.