On Making Dresses, the Geranium, and Being One of those Moms

One of my goals for 2013 was to sew Hannah a piece of clothing from scratch, aka something that didn't start with a onesie.  (I'm not knocking the onesie dresses because they are adorable, but I've made several now and wanted to take on a new challenge.)

In April I had the chance to pattern test for the Zig Zag dress and I was so excited!  I pulled it off in a weekend, despite lots and lots of newbie sewing mistakes, but I did it.  Since then, I have made Hannah EIGHT dresses.  Oh man.  And two others that are not for Hannah.  And a few other things.  It appears that I have gotten the bug.

I seem to have gone (rapidly and unintentionally) from one of those moms who has sewn dresses to a mom who does sew dresses.  It's kind of funny.  My explanation for this crazy behavior is that I'm indecisive.  I lay out different fabric combinations and see different patterns and styles, and instead of just picking my favorite, I pick three favorites, cut them all out, and sew like crazy. :) 

The most recent dress is this polka dotted one.
It's the Geranium Dress, of which Hannah now has 4 versions.  I'll show you the other versions this week too.

This pattern comes with different options for the sleeves, neck, and length, and after I tried them all I wanted to add my own variation.  I used an old dress to draft a pattern for this cute little Peter Pan collar and the puffy sleeves.I used a 2T bodice size and pleated the "skirt" part of the top because I wanted it to be really wide and billowy.And I used these fun green buttons for a bit of color since the style and pattern are pretty simple.This was my view for most of our photo-session, Hannah was on the run, exploring our street.At the end of our block is a little pier to the River Thames, so we went down there.  It has never stopped amazing me how different it is at different parts of the day.  At this point in the morning it was (practically) bone dry.
But that night after dinner with some friends, we stopped at the same spot to feed the ducks and it was practically full.  Crazy tides. 
Anyway, Hannah loved spinning in this dress when I first put it on her, but once we were outside, the main event was just to run away from me.  Not too surprising, I don't think.  

The little rascal.I thought I'd do a bit of a show-and-tell this week of some of my projects that I've been cranking out.  I'm currently borrowing a sewing machine from a friend and I need to return it on Friday, so I'm cranking out a few things between now and then.  Wish me luck finishing up my vacation sewing before I actually go on vacation. :)