First Attempt at Sewing = Success!!!

JUST DON'T LOOK TOO CLOSE! 

Thanks in advance to my friend Heather for inspiring me!  She is an awesome seamstress and crafter!  I love to talk all things craft, homemade and blog with her.  I keep telling her she needs to start a blog to share some of the incredible work she does!  You would be amazed by her talent!  I am.  My other inspiration is my Mother.  Growing up my Mom made a lot of my clothes and I loved it - even though we give her a hard time about the amount of double knit we wore as kids!  I really just blame it on the 70s!

For the past several months I have toyed with the idea of trying to sew a dress for my daughter.  I have seen numerous posts about the pillowcase dress and how easy it is.  My husband gave me a sewing machine a few years ago (after extensive hinting by me).  Up to this point I have sewed exactly 2 things - pillowcases for a couple of giant floor pillows in our living room and a pillowcase for the body pillow on my daughters bed.  So why not give a pillowcase dress a try - I mean, I have proven I can sew a pillow case!  Hee hee!

So I headed to JoAnn's and found this awesome floral fabric and picked up a great pink and green ribbon.

I pulled out that sewing machine that is collecting dust and set out on my journey.  On a side note, I think I need a name for my sewing machine.  I have big plans for lifelong friendship and my besties all have names.  I guess that will have to wait as I can't wait to share my dressmaking skills!

Here's the fabric!

I had archived a couple of patterns for pillowcase dresses and found that the guidelines provided by Sew Delightful was perfect because it helped me size it for my almost 6 year old.  Then this week over at The CSI Project Sarah from This Crazy, Blessed Life shared her version of a similar dress that included an elastic waist.  This was exactly what I was looking for as I was concerned that making a pillowcase dress for an older girl might look a bit big and bulky.

I have no sewing education, no really experience but a desire to give it a try.  Straight lines are great so I decided to just go for it.  At best I would be out $5 in materials.  Much to my delight, the project turned out wonderful.  My daughter loves it and so do I.  I can't wait to go back to the fabric store.  I have my eye on this awesome madras plaid and want to make another dress for my daughter and even attempt to make a pair of matching shorts for my son (although I will try with a cheaper piece of fabric first).  I found a great pattern for a simple pair of flat front shorts from Made.

Wish me luck!