Back to my roots

Tonight I have been doing some dressmaking and alterations.  This is how I really got into sewing, my mum taught me to make my own clothes and I studied costume for two years, hence the title of this post.

When my daughter was born, one of the gifts we received was this cute little pinafore dress (with a floral top) in a size 0, which she's only just grown into in the last few months.

Aside from the size, the weather has only been right for in it the last few weeks, and by this time, it was already getting a little too small for her.  That's the problem with baby clothes!

The straps originally met at the centre back (almost like a cross-over), so I unpicked them, moved them to be straight-on, which added a little length, and then included some elastic.

Hopefully now this will last her till the warmer weather and she'll get some decent wear out of it!

My mother also made her a little pinafore out of some green floral fabric.  You can read the story of the fabric here on my mum's blog, as well as see a cute preschool photo of me!

Again the sizing didn't match up with the weather in Melbourne, and the dress is too tight in the armholes.  Originally I was going to make an extra tab to button in, as the shoulders are closed with buttons and button-holes.  Then I thought about putting some elastic in so I dug through my elastic draw, but had a lazy idea!!

I've just looped hair elastics through the button holes and these then hook over the buttons!  Luckily I have some 'fair' coloured hair elastics which were bought for my husband (he's only used one or two out of the packet) as they look much better than my dark brown ones would have.

Tonight I also hemmed a skirt I made the other day but I'll save that for another post.  I'll have to get a photo of me actually wearing it first!

It feels really good to be so 'practical' in the sewing room and save clothes which would otherwise be passed on.  Also the skirt I made was out of my very large stash of fabrics and I'm glad I've made a very small dimple in that!  I should do more of this......