dress

  • Fire-Breathing Fancy

    ByHeather Bailey

    DragonCostume_HeatherBailey_1

    What do you do when your five-year-old's imagination is on fire?  On Fi-yah!

    You fan the flame.

    This year for Halloween, Charlotte ordered up a frightening feat; that is, a costume I had no hope of purchasing — and it was the week before Quilt Market.  Last year she dreamed up a Bat Fairy.  This year, she was intent on a fierce, fire-breathing Dragon. 

    DragonCostume_HeatherBailey_2 The day after Charlotte was born, my sister, Julia came to visit us in the hospital.  While holding Charlotte for the first time, Julia leaned over to me and whispered, "The baby just told me something.  She said, 'I am my own self.'" 

    I was puzzled and dismissive at first, "Yeah, whatever."  Then a tetch concerned (knowing Julia and her knack for such things).  "If that's the vibe my sweet little baby is putting off already, then I'm in for it," I thought, "especially once she's a teenager."

    So, how much stock can you put in the proclamations of a one-day-old baby?

    Perhaps, some.  Julia, with her freaky, awesome sixth sense, was right again. Charlotte could have been named Scarlet for all her fiesty, charming individuality.  She is her own self: uniquely creative, thoughtful, sweet, sassy, and notably interesting.  I was looking forward to what she would come up with this year.  A dragon, though a tall order, was no surprise.

    One bat of her eyelashes and a quick, sincere squeeze was all it took.  And I was off on her quest.

    DragonCostume_HeatherBailey_3

    At TJ Maxx, I found an oddly dragon-like mermaid dress to build upon — a huge blessing.  With this running start, I gathered up a smorgasbord of fabrics with the same flavor and set about designing the beast's head — no headdress, no dragon.

    The foam alligator hats I grabbed from Dollar Tree were a great help.  (Before photos here.)  I would have otherwise structured the headdress with Timtex, but that might have zapped me for time.  (I only had two days to complete the costume, wrap up some work, and pack for a 9-day trip.)  I stacked two or three hats & quickly stitched them together for strength, then extended the gumline by covering the foam teeth with bias tape.  I built the dragon you see here on top of this frankensteinian monkey business. 

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    And it worked.  Thank heaven.  Furthermore, the hood turned out light-weight and comfortable, so Charlotte actually kept it on.  Bonus, right?

    As it turns out, Charlotte's I-am-my-own-self singularity is a complete delight.  Worthy of celebration, not dread.  Her obvious enchantment is worth every stitch, and then some.

  • Flirty Skirt, Dirty Dirt

    ByHeather Bailey

    Skirty1Detail

    My
    friend, Jill, has two cute little girls and she always has them dolled
    up to the nines.  (And she's the best hair-bow-maker around — a new
    bow for every outfit.)  Jill watched Charlotte a couple of
    times a week last year.  During that time her girls became like sisters
    to Charlotte — and Jill really did a great job of keeping them all
    busy and entertained with swimming, carousel-ing, park-time, etc.  So,
    as a heart-felt thank you to Jill, I designed her girls some matching,
    skirty outfits.

    Skirty1

    The tee shirts — Talk
    about a high impact-to-effort ratio, decorating tee-shirts can be
    easy-peasy.  I fused floral elements from my Rose Bouquet print from
    Pop Garden to each store-bought tee shirt using fusible web.  I then
    stitched around the edges of each fused piece (with a ball-point needle
    installed in my machine to prevent holes from forming in the knit
    material.)  There are at least three or four flowers in this print that
    make perfect appliques. 

    Shirty1

    The two skirts — I had a lot of fun putting the fabric combinations together.  I wanted them to match each other, but not really match.  I didn't draft a pattern as they're just sewn from various
    rectangles.  I probably should have jotted down some measurements as I went. 
    However, my friend Jona does have pattern for a similar skirt all
    ready to go – The Edith Twirl.  (Check out the embroidery on those
    Edith under-skirts.)

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    The floral print in the skirt above is probably my favorite print from Pop Garden.  It's
    soft and romantic, yet electric and sassy.  And the ziggity Zag Stripe to the right is entirely too fun to sew
    with.  I still need to bind a quilt in this print and see what it does.
    Fussy-cut quilt blocks made with this fabric could result in some
    interesting effects too.  More sewing, more sewing.

    I'm not sure if I
    scratched that dern sewing itch well enough with this one project, but
    I expect to do more sewing once my next fabric collection is off to the
    mill here soon. And OH, it's pretty.  And sweet. 
    Sweet and pretty.  That's all I'm going to say.  Like that
    housekeeper-lady says in The Parent Trap, "I'm not saying a word."

    Shirty2aa

    What else, what else?  OH!  I should have mentioned this first —
    yikes.  Tara's baby girl, Grace, was born this week!!  And she's
    stinkin' beautiful.  Which is really unfair to the other bruised,
    swollen newborns in the nursery.  I mean, come on — tilting, exotic
    eyes, high cheekbones, a perfectly-shaped head covered with beautiful,
    dark hair.  At three weeks early, we were only caught slightly
    off-guard.  Isaac's been phone-interviewing for a new Office Assitant
    this week and then final interviews are next week.  Tara will be back
    in a few months in a new position.  We'll miss her while she's away
    smooching on that sweet, new baby.

    Skirty2Detail2
    We're really overlapping about five or six projects at the
    moment.  And as I'm not so great at falling asleep when I'm excited
    about a project – or six projects, imagine my self-satisfaction at
    rolling out of bed on time this morning for my 8 o'clock tap class —
    jazz hands!  : )

    And then there's the yard.  Wednesday
    was Fill-the-Raised-Garden-with-Dirt Day.  Thursday was
    Move-the-Big-Rocks-Around Day.  (Isaac might as well have been at
    Disneyland.  He wouldn't climb down from that bulldozer for anything.) 
    Yesterday was Rake-the-Dirt-All-Smooth Day.  And today has been
    Form-the-Perfectly-Curved-Curbing Day.  Isaac's ready to move onto
    Install-the-Five-Valve-Sprinkler-System Day, but I'm entirely ready for
    a break, so we've pacted to give ourselves a week of
    Avoid-the-Yardwork-Alltogether Days so we can celebrate
    Get-Back-to-What-We-Should-Have-Been-Doing Day – which may evolve into
    a week-long celebration in the end.

    JillBows

    And
    I'm looking to do March of the Tools again this year.  One more day
    till March.  There are a number of gizmos, gadgets, thing-a-majigs and
    who-z-whatzits I'm excited to share.  I'll have the badge back up in my
    sidebar later today.  I'd love for you to join me – yes, please join
    me.  Infact, email me to let me know you're doing March of the Tools
    too and I'll post a link to your blog on the March of the Tools page so we can all see who is playing along and get some leads on new, must-have tools.