Sunday, July 25, 2010

July Dress Up and working on "Alice"

We still have the four kids almost every day and out of desperation I made a declaration that I have to sew.....ALONE...The sewing isnt the problem, it is sewing without three extra bodies upstairs all wanting to create something different...Andrew, who is four, likes to paint....(paint everywhere..), Olivia wants to sew and does, thankfully without my help and Daniel makes things out of paper and glue and whatever he can find...(big giant paper mess). I put the two boys out on the picnic table and told them to knock themselves out and Olivia and I took back the sewing room!
We have been sewing scrap blocks like the ones I showed about a week ago. She just got her first sewing machine and she uses the blocks to practice straight seams. She is getting pretty good at it already.
Then I started on my July paper dress...This is hostessed by Margaret at http://aliceandcamilla.blogspot.com
The idea is to make a dress a month and she has quite a few participants, then we all visit each other and ooh and ahh over the dresses...It is like paper dolls for grown ups. Olivia jumped right in on this one....She told me what shape she wanted and I drew and cut it and then she decorated and finished it...With no help from me! This is one cute dress.....Here is Olivia's.....







She picked out everything herself.....
My dress just felt like it had to be red and blue in honor of July...I can just picture it with a pair of red cowboy boots....cutie, patootie!









Yee haw cowgirls...

Tonight after the kids went home I headed back upstairs and started to work on my Alice In Wonderland apron....I am going to do it collage style and just kind of wing it...In other words no pattern and on the artsy side...I drew some legs and a petticoat on fabric and then used free motion sewing and a ton of thread and this is the finished result...not the apron, just the bottom of Alice going down the rabbit hole.....











If you click on the pic, it gets big and you can see all the thread.....anyway, it is a start...I can see the finished thing all in my head so we will see if it turns out the way I think it will, or if it has a life of it's own.....
Happy Summer!

27 comments:

Mandy said...

wow...clever daughter....your dress ooks sooo cool!!!loving the alice theme at the moment...too...xxx

Margaret said...

Great duo you gals are, when are you opening your boutique??!! (something else to do, I know I know...)
Totally fab dresses this month, love Olivia's style, isn't it amazing what lies within just waiting for an outlet. Great colour choices and fab shape.
I love your cowgirl creation, the skirt is inspired with it's sewn collage effect! Mx

My Creative House said...

How much fun it must have been sewing with Olivia, both dresses are so beautiful.
Anni

Jane said...

The apron is going to be stunning and two lovely dress

Jen xo said...

oh well done POlivai, i love your dress, sooo pretty

and well done melinda, it would look great with red cowboy boots...

love your alice too, its going to look wonderful...

Pat said...

You are SO creative!!! I really enjoy seeing the things you come up with.......and know that I could never think out of the box the way you do! Keep up the great work.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Olivia could teach me a thing or two about sewing a straight line. She did an awesome job of decorating her dress, too. Yours is simply super. I can see it swirling in the breeze as you dos-se-doe around the dance floor in your cowgirl boots. That collar is unbelievable. You did a great job on it.

And I was stunned when I saw that much of the shoes and socks was thread. Unbelievable. Of course, I thought of the Wicked Witch rather than Alice, but hey, what do I know. I live on the Yellow Brick Road.

Joanne Lendaro said...

Cute, cute, cute!! You gals did a great job! Hope it didn't take too long to clean up the mess from the boys....

PeggyR said...

It looks great! I know you need time alone!

Maria said...

What gorgeous dresses Melinda.
Oh poor Alice with the pins in her legs and in her uh ha. LOL I enlarged it and your free motion quilting is just great. Can't wait to see your apron finished.

Anonymous said...

Both dresses are way too cute!!!

nice going Olivia :D

and now on to the apron... W.O.W.
i said it B4 but i'll repeat myself again = U R 1 talented lady!!!

can't wait to find my pkg in the mail box....

~victoria~

Julie Harward said...

These are cute...and I LOVE what you are doing for the apron! You are a real artist! :D

Jody said...

Beautiful dresses, and Alice!!! Makes me very sorry I'm not in this swap! But you wouldn't have been my partner....:(

~*~Patty S said...

Olivia's dress is darling!
Your dress is fab too and sure would look perfect with some red cowgirl boots!!!

You get extra credit for working/playing under duress too ;)
oxo

Kristin said...

Oh wow! This is just stunning - both of them! I love the legs on your wip and can't wait to see the end results. You are such an inspiration, Kristin xo

Little Messy Missy said...

Very cute!!! I love the little dresses!!! I am in the AIW Swap too...great idea!!

Holly Loves Art said...

Oh my goodness they are wonderful. Love the cowgirl style! What a fun a clever idea! I used to LOVE swaps... I have got to join some more soon!
Holly

Pam said...

Love the cowgirl dress in red, white, and blue. Olivia's is great also. I'm going to start my 7 year old GD sewing this week. I've ordered a book but think we will start with fabric squares or strips of fabric. Maybe make a doll quilt.

Alice's bottom looks great.

Unknown said...

oh so much fun!! I love your cute dresses...I am so happy I found this challenge!!!

Tammie Lee said...

Your dresses are quite wonderful!

Lorraine said...

love your little dresses especially the cowgirl one..I am finding it difficult to create now as well as one of my sons wont go to bed!! roll on september when they are all back at school

Yarni Gras! said...

wow! how old is Olivia? She sounds like she will be an amazing artist...like you!

I love your Alice!!!...I think I'll have to try thread painting one day. Wish we lived closer so you could walk me thru it! Haven't even started my AIW apron...but finished my tuck ins yesterday :-)

bridget said...

You are killin' me Melinda. You definitely bring back memories of when my kids were babies. I have to make one of these dresses. They are irresistible. I'm going to do that today and post on my blog tonight. And your apron: I can't keep looking at it or I won't be able to think of anything original that is so amazing!

Robin (RsIslandCrafts) said...

Alice is looking great!

BadPenny said...

fabulous dresses

Marva Plummer-Bruno said...

Hey lady! Once again I love your dress! I finally finished my July dress and caught up on March. Now if I can only get my August dress done this week...

Yanet @ 3 Sun Kissed Boys said...

I love the skirt part fabric of Olivia's dress! They both do look great.

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