The sewing mood the other day has led to this: a finished dress for Isabelle! It’s dress K from this book, isbn 4277722407. Ahead is a whole bunch of sewing talk. So if that doesn’t interest you (Olinda) you can skip ahead to the pictures of Isabelle below.

So the sewing talk. I can’t believe it, I made this, FIRE! (ok just had to throw that in) It even has facings! None of the stuff I made before had facings, just bias binding.

Sorry but I find that so exciting! Weird to be so happy over sewing. Well anyhoo back to the sewing talk which I’m sure you find oh so fascinating. I was a little bit confused with the directions. Or I should say the pictures since I cannot read Japanese. The pictures look like I’m supposed to sew the edge of the box pleat. But I don’t know how I’m supposed to do that at the top of the pleat.

Because I can’t just sew it right on top through all the fabric, like top stitching, because that closes it up and no more pleat. And if I finagle it, sewing just the folded bits, how do I manage it at the top where the pleats meet without sewing the fabric under it? Am I making any sense at all?

I think I need to show a sewer seamstress (thanks Sarabeth!) in person. Sewer?? There must be another word for one who sews instead of sewer! Sorry just went off on that tangent. I ended up just leaving the pleat alone, no sewing.

And ooh another thing I found so exciting, a zipper! My first zipper on clothes!!!! I have uglified several unimportant sewing items by trying to add a zipper. But this was the first item where I actually wanted the zipper to look nice.

So I just sat there without a clue as to how to put it in. It was pretty much the last thing I needed to add to finish the dress. So first things first. Go get a zipper (yeah I didn’t already have one) So off to the store me and Isabelle went. And oh my gawd there are so many zippers at the fabric store! Metal, plastic, aluminum, separating, invisible, all purpose…so overwhelming I could have curled up into a little ball right then and there. But instead I chose one that didn’t look too big, got home, winged it and ta da! Finished dress. But I’m thinking the zipper isn’t high enough. Shouldn’t it go more to the top? That’s as far as it’ll go up.

Ok. Done with the sewing talk. And no pictures of Isabelle wearing it. I’ll get some on Sunday at the party we’re going to. And now here are the Isabelle pictures!

I think Waldo was trying to take a nap when she crawled into the crate. His little head was just a teensy bit sticking out. And she was sitting there pulling it closed on his face. And then at one point she sits on him and pats him right on the face. And then you can see him trying to escape only to have her close the door on his face again. No nap for Waldo!