Happy 2014!

I didn’t really make any New Year resolutions in 2013 save for the vague notion of keeping a monthly journal (but I managed to skip a quarter of the year..). Looking back, it seems like the first 6 months were dominated by work, and thereafter we had a series of trips with family and friends interspersed with more work and yoga.

This year, I’d like to be more deliberate about setting aside time for creativity and writing, consider this my solemn vow to post at least 4 times a month.  I have a few completed projects on the blog backburner which will help  – I think I need to reinforce the blogging habit as well as work on style and content.

And so it begins…

Christmas and Chinese New Year were not far away  at the time of sewing so it felt right to make a little red dress for Skittles. I started with the same pattern I used for Dress 1, but this time I added a little ruffle at the bottom. I considered adding a pocket and actually made one but the scale was off and I ran out of fabric.. oh well.

Lessons learnt this time are:

1. Technique –  bias tape to finish the collar and armholes before joining up the sides. I also need to work on sewing curves smoothly.
2. Sizing – I need to shrink the pattern to fit Asian toddlers. Although Skittles has since arrived and is not a dainty china princess, I ended up taking the dress a bit down the sides   as the arm holes seemed ginormous.  You can see what a difference it made!
3. Ruffles – I should make a single continuous ruffle instead of 2 separate pieces. The length of the ruffle should be at least double the diameter of the hem to make a flouncier ruffle. A 4 inch width would have worked better with the proportions.

I still have a couple of baby items to post about, then I shall move on to paper..