A Bibbie, Blogger Changes (Again), and Out and About

Making a Bibbie

For Christmas my granddaughter received an adorable little apron which her mom calls a bibbie.  It covers her front, meets at center back, and ties at the neck.   It is made of two layers of fabric quilted with thin batting between.  Before we visited a few weeks ago my daughter ask if I might be able to make another one, so I took along some large paper and traced a pattern.  It's a simple pattern but I'd never machine quilted and wasn't sure how it would go on my mom's old black 201 Singer. 

This week I spent several days making another, just as a trial to see if I could.  The fabric for both sides came from thrift clothing:  a woman's blouse, a skirt, and the back of a shirt for the binding.  Before layering and sewing I marked diagonal quilting lines at 1½" with a grey Crayola washable marker.  After layering I pinned the heck out of the layers, just to be sure there was no shifting.  And it worked just fine.  There were no puckers in the fabric.  Surprise!

It took hours and hours and I can see why the company who made her first bibbie went out of business.  There couldn't have been much profit when they sold them for $35.00!

The back is a plaid with similar colors to the fabric on the front.  I would have used a darker fabric had I had enough of one that worked with the colors on the front.

This is the finished bibbie.  My daughter liked it and Sophia was happy to wear it.  Somehow, it's not nearly as sweet as the little blue one which, I think, makes her look like she walked about of the 1940s.  If I make another, I'll buy fabric for it instead of using what I have on hand.

We drove down to my daughter's on Thursday, stayed overnight, then came home yesterday.  It was great to spend time with both our daughters, our grandchildren, and our son-in-law.  I don't have much energy today but I'm working on the bow tie quilt (which I'll post when it's done).

More Blogger Challenges
I do wish Blogger would leave well enough alone.  I've been getting emails from Google Analytics for several months telling me that Universal Analytics will be going away in July and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will become the default data collection tool.  I'd been putting off checking into it because, well, who wants more changes, but finally decided to check into it a week or so ago.  They suggest it's an easy change to set up but then they are tech savvy and I'm not.  They'd included the beginning of changes for this blog but not for my others.  And even their set-up wizard was not especially helpful.  What it seems to come down to is making a coding change.behind the scenes where all the coding for your whole blog is.  To a non-tech person like me it's scary stuff and just thinking about it makes me nervous.  What are you doing about this change to GA4?  (It's not that I love numbers per se, but I do like to see how many people have visited my blog, whether it's 12, 180, or however many.)

Out and About
We drove up to Malabar Farm a few weeks ago and toured the Big House. We had an excellent tour guide who casually added of anecdotes and behind-the-scenes information about Louis Bromfield and his family.  Below is about half the house and below that, the barn and other farm buildings.

The property is owned by Ohio's Department of Natural Resources which keeps the buildings and grounds in beautiful condition.  I loved the columbines!

There should be more to this post but my memory fails me just now....

I hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend, remembering those who gave their lives to help the United States of America keep the freedoms we have.

--Nancy.

Sweet and Simple

Two-year-old Olivia likes dresses best in summer heat -- they are so much cooler -- so I made her a simple, little play dress. 

I chose sweet fabric and used an older pattern:  New Look #6367.  The pattern calls for a faced bodice but I wanted O's dress to be as cool as possible so I altered the pattern, cut bias tape from the dress fabric, and used it around the neckline and armholes.  Instead of the extra layers from plackets for buttons, I stitched a turned in the seam at the back and used loops instead of buttonholes.  All seams are French seams except where the bodice meets the skirt.  It's ready for wash-and-wear and plenty of play.  Hooray for a finish!

I had forgotten that printed pattern sizes run larger than the sizing of ready-made clothes.  O wears a size 2 dress and according to pattern measurements she should wear a size 2 pattern, but when I measured the paper pattern pieces they were inches too large.  Instead of cutting according to the pattern information I cut two sizes smaller.  Little O doesn't live close enough for me to run over and have her try this on but I have no doubt that it will fit, probably with growing room.

I hope both she and her mom like it.  I've found that if mom doesn't like something (book, toy, item of clothing) it doesn't get used and the child doesn't have a chance to choose whether she likes it or not.

I one more little dress to stitch.  After it's finished we'll either take them when we visit next or send them along via regular mail.

I'm linking this post to finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, WIPS Be Gone at A Quilting Reader's Garden, and Can I get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Thanks for hosting, ladies.

I hope you have a great weekend!
--Nancy.
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Amazing Thread - Slow Stitching

Today's slow stitching will include a neckline and sleeve hems on a little summer play dress for my granddaughter

and one more leaf on my basket of flowers block.  It should be a peaceful Sunday afternoon or evening.

I've been thinking about the wonder of thread this week and last as I sewed a dress and hand appliqued flowers, stems, and leaves. 

Isn't it amazing that something so fine and thin can hold two pieces of fabric together?  Really!  When you think about it -- the seams in clothing or three layers of a quilt, all held together with one narrow length of almost-nothing.  And just as amazing is that those fine threads, or sometimes finer than the ones we use for sewing, are woven together to make fabric which is both durable and beautiful.  (I'm one of those who thinks plain, unprinted fabric is beautiful, too.)  I'm so thankful to whoever imagined and invented thread.

I love that thread is smooth.  I love that it's usually shiny.  Older cotton thread seems to have more of a sheen than modern thread, though I don't know why.  I have some old spools that just practically glow.  Wonderful!

I love that there are so many colors of thread.  I love that some threads have a chameleon-like quality that allows them to blend with whatever color of fabric they're sewn onto.  I accidentally bought an extra spool of apricot thread.  I've been using it to machine-stitch light-colored fabrics.  It leans toward whatever light fabric I'm sewing -- pink, yellow, cream, tan, even light green.  Amazing!  I used a light green thread to bast a brown basket.  It looked cream.  And I'm using a green to sew the blue dress for my granddaughter.  On the spool it looks green but when stitched it looks like a perfect match.  (I do usually match thread when I sew clothing but not in this case:  it's a play dress; I didn't have a match on hand; and I didn't have time or the inclination to go to the fabric store to buy a spool of thread of which I'd use less than a bobbin's worth.  For a play dress it won't matter.) 

I continue to be amazed and thankful for thread.  Without it there's so much I wouldn't be able to do. If you're sewing today, I hope you enjoy the thread that your needle pulls through the fabric to hold two pieces together.

I'm linking this post to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

Happy Sabbath to you!

--Nancy.
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McCall's 6872

I've taken up sewing children's clothes again -- or at least another dress for my granddaughter.  I used to make nearly all of my daughters' dresses and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I'm out of practice, at least with the sizing.  It's hard to find patterns for babies and even harder to figure out which size will fits.  You wouldn't think that 1/4 or 3/8 inch would make such a difference but it does.

I chose this McCall's pattern.  Isn't it cute?  The sizes go from newborn to X-large.

Based on the measurements on the pattern I decided to make the X-small for my 13-pound grandbaby for my first try.  (I'm not going to show you photographs of that effort.)  When cutting the dress I didn't realize there were two lengths.   The pattern tissue didn't indicate cutting lines for two lengths, either.  As I was stitching the pattern together I kept thinking that the skirt was going to be so short -- and it was.  Very, very short.  (I later realized that what I thought was a dress was actually a top.)

But it was the bodice that caused me greater disappointment.  It was wide enough for a baby much heavier than 13 pounds.  And the long sleeves that I cut were long and wide enough to add a casing for elastic.

In the end, I laid that dress aside and bought new fabric for a second try.

I made these changes on the second dress:

• I cut the skirt length as long as the longest pattern on the tissue.  I ended up with a 1 3/4" hem.  If she grows taller before she grows wider, I can lengthen the skirt.  Or it will just get a little shorter on her.
• I fussed over the width of the sleeve and finally just cut it narrower from underarm to wrist.  Much narrower.  I angled the line from underarm to wrist ending 1 1/4" narrower at the wrist.  The result was a sleeve that looks a little narrower than on the pattern but which allowed enough room for Olivia's cubby little arms.

These are the changes I'll make next time:

• I'll cut the neckline just a little lower in the front -- probably not even 1/4".  She had room but her mom was afraid the dress would slip toward her back and choke her.
• I'll cut the sleeve narrow again (if I want long sleeves) but maybe not quite so narrow - maybe taking off 1" instead of 1 1/4".  
• The lower edge of the sleeve was curved.  I'll cut it straight across, keeping it at the longest point on the pattern, or possibly add a little length (maybe an inch). 

• I will not sew set-in sleeves.  The armscye on this dress is so tiny that after gathering and pinning, I was barely able to get it under the presser foot of my machine.  Next time I will sew the shoulder seams on the bodice, gather the sleeve, then pin them together flat, and sew them flat.  Then I'll stitch the underarm and sleeve seam all in one go.  It will change the appearance a little but not enough to make it worth sewing the set-in sleeve.
• The other thing about this pattern is that the bodice is lined.  Great for a winter dress but a little warm for a summer dress -- at least in our humid summer climate!  That will take a little more effort to figure out the facings for the back opening....

Do you want to see the finished dress?

Here it is.  It's a little wide in the bodice for some growth room.  The sleeves could be a little longer but they'll fit for another month or two.  And the width and length of a skirt are (in my opinion) perfect for a kicking baby.  I think the fabric is a bit busy for such a tiny baby but I didn't have anything at home that would work and not much time to shop.  Next time I'll choose either a calmer fabric or one with a smaller print.

Are you like me?  Do you pick apart your work to figure out how you can make it better the next time?  I don't know if it's my introvertish ways, my perfectionistic tendencies, or my attempts at self-improvement....

By the way, Olivia loves "Center Light."  I could barely get her attention off the fabrics long enough to snap a few photos.

I'm linking this post to Really Random Thursday at Live a Colorful Life and Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.  Thanks, ladies!


I hope you're having a great time quilting or sewing or gardening or doing whatever you're doing these days.

--Nancy.
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