Sewing Adventures

Despite our trip to Dubai, I'm still taking one of my fashion classes. We had started a children's wear project before I left. I've been working on it here in Dubai. The electronic portion isn't finished yet (it's due Wednesday), but I've finished all the sewing.

I made a fit sample weeks ago and mailed it to my sister-in-law, Amity. She and my brother tried the fit sample (a simplified version of the dress made out of muslin) on their girls and sent me pictures. They also took a few measurements so that I could decide on design details.

Before we left, I was able to sew the dress for their eldest (because she was closest in size to the fit sample). I was in such a hurry to ship the dress before our flight that I forgot to take a picture of it. Amity was kind enough to send me this picture of the first dress:

I had also made a second fit sample before leaving. I draped this on a children's dress form at school and cut the cape the way I wanted it. It's not perfect, because the children's dress form at school is for a larger boys size. But you can get the idea:

In the midst of dress fittings, my brother decided to look at the power supply in Dubai. He recommended that I not attempt to take my sewing machine, which had been my plan. Something about the motor - a simple converter wouldn't solve the problem. Instead, I got a machine here. Of course, given the power situation, I'll have to leave the machine here.

First, I worked on the coat that goes with the dress. It came out pretty well, if I do say so myself. It's fully lined, which was a bit of a puzzle. I'm not sure how lining is installed in an industrial setting, but I'm pretty sure it isn't the way I did it. I'm very happy with the end result, though:

Lacking a dress form or a small child, I put the coat on a pillow to see how it looks. My pillow is a little too chubby for the coat:

When I asked Amity what her daughter thought of the dress, I was informed that the eldest wasn't a fan of the "wings" (the collar). But when discussion began about the dress, the younger girl stripped off her clothes and wiggled into the too-big dress. So today, I decided I would finish her dress as well.

Here it is, only partially hemmed:

I hemmed the bottom with a machine stitch to start. The dress could be let out to this length and no one would probably notice. But here it is hemmed by hand to the intended length:

That's an 1.5 inch hem, but it's hard to tell. Both dresses have large hidden pockets in the side seams. I was very happy to hear that both girls loved the pockets. They are far too young to be required to choose between wearing dresses and having the convenience of pockets.

Finally, a picture of the dress and coat that I've made in Dubai. The dress is approximately a size 2T and the coat is approximately a 4T.