I'm not a Dressmaker!

I must start out by saying that I am not a dressmaker. I never have been.

Months ago, I found some material on the clearance rack at Target. It was repackaged so I don't know what it's original purpose was...perhaps curtain panels or sheets. I bought it because I liked the material and thought that I could someday do something with it.

I've wanted to make pajama pants for quite some time. In fact the skirt that I made out of the old dress was originally supposed to be pants but I chickened out. So, I started last night. I took a pair of sweatpants and used them as a template for cutting out the material. Then, I sew each leg separately and went to connect the two legs together. BIG PROBLEM!!! I forgot that sweatpants stretch...especially in the waistband. I did not take that into consideration as I cut the material. My waste would have to be less that 30 inches for these pants to fit me. I assure you that my waist is definitely NOT that small! I was so bummed that I wasted the material. That was my first learning experience.

So, I made this...

Again, I am not a dressmaker! I'm a copycat. My daughter was given a dress of similar making and she wears it nonstop. She wears it for several reasons.

1. She has trouble with eczema and the is 100% cotton and is loose fitting.
2. The top is made out of a T-shirt and she is the t-shirt queen.
3. The dress is made out of Cars material and the girl LOVES the movie, Cars.

Considering those factors and the fact that I hate doing laundry a lot, I thought that it would be nice to have another t-shirt type dress for her to wear while the other is in the laundry. She had a big sister shirt that was too short in her torso. I copied the Cars dress that she already had and it actually worked out. When she woke up this morning, I showed it too her. She loves it and declared that she now has 2 favorite dresses. Yippee!!! That was the second thing I learned.

It was late when I finished her dress and my hubby was heading to bed but I got an inkling to make myself a dress too. (I just screwed up a pair of pajama pants, where did I get such sewing confidence?!?!?) Today we had a Mother/Daughter Brunch to go to and I thought that matching dresses would be cute. I made myself a wrap-around dress. It Velcros on the inside and ties on the outside. I had major trouble with ironing the fabric on in the correct place but other than that, it wasn't too hard. I finished it just before 2:00 this morning! Wow, three things learned today!

All day as I wore it I kept thinking to myself, "I sure hope this thing doesn't self-destruct on me." I could just see myself standing there in my undies in front of all the prim and proper mothers and daughters simply because I thought I could make a dress! Alas, it didn't fall apart - or off - and we received lots of compliments.

The brunch ended much earlier that we expected, so we visited the ducks...

Rode the trolley (and of course took notes)...

And took a trip to our favorite coffee shop...

It was our lucky day because just after we ordered, a seat opened up by the window overlooking all the boats in the harbor...

Before we left, we checked out the ice cream and dreamt of warmer days where we could walk along the water and stop by for a delicious scoop to eat on the coffee house patio. Soon, my dear, soon...