Rebecca's Dress Tutorial

This is my first tutorial so I hope I'm good at explaining everything. I have had this picture saved on my desktop since before I had a baby girl. Decided that today was the day!!

I started by finding a simple shirt that was just a little big on her. I folded a piece of paper in half and made a pattern.

 Then I drew lines on the pattern where I wanted the pleats to go. I thought 1/2 inch looked great.

I made one line at 3/4 of an inch by mistake so forgive me. (those are the squiggled out lines)

Then I drew a line for the neck one inch above the top pleat and connected it to the shoulder seam. I didn't measure just what I thought looked right was fine for me.

I flipped that piece over and traced the pattern piece onto another paper and added one inch for the button to over lap in the back. Made the neck a gentle curve for the back of the dress.

For the sleeve I really had no idea of what to do. I put the pattern front piece on another paper and traced the arm hole. I knew I wanted it gathered so I added about another inch to allow for that.

Added the seam allowance and that was that :)

Next cutting. I decided it would be really easy to pleat first then cut. But I didn't want to take all the fabric to the ironing board. So I placed the front top pattern piece onto the fabric. I put my ruler down to add the 5 inches needed. Then I gave myself an extra inch or two just in case.

Armed with my smaller square I headed to the ironing board. I used my pattern as a guide to know about where to put the first fold.

So you fold it back then iron.  Lay it flat and pinch the pleat up. Then iron it flat.

Easy Peasy!

Repeat that 5 times!!

The back will look like this:

I am not a perfectionist, and you can see how hard measuring was for me when I was making the pattern, so I just did it by eye. If you are having troubles, spray starch will be your best friend. You can also pin!! Just don't iron the pin heads if you have plastic ones.

Then I took that to the sewing machine and sewed down each pleat so I knew it would stay during washing.

Now all the prep work is done the rest is pretty straight forward for a little girls dress.

I put the pattern for the front on the fabric that I just pleated,  lining up the pleats and cut it out. Then cut another one from regular fabric for the facing. Cut 4 of the back piece (two are for facings.) and two sleeves.

Sew the outside at the shoulder seam and set aside. Then do the same for the facings.

Next do a tight zig zag seam along the outer edge of the sleeve. When I started at the pointy end my machine ate the fabric a little bit. So For the second sleeve I started in the middle and worked my way to the edge. Then I flipped it and sewed back. I also did a long basting stitch on the opposite side starting and finishing about an inch from the edge. Then gather the inside.

Go back to your pleated top and sew in the sleeves. I started about a half inch from the bottom and sew in.

Then get your facings. Pin right sides together. Start with the neck line in the center and sew out. And sew down to the bottom.

Next sew around the sleeves. They will be inside the fabric sandwich. You will not be able to see them as you are sewing around the sleeves.

Snip the curved seams. And The back corner where the buttons will go.

Next you have to turn it right sides out. You will have to pull it through the shoulder seams. I don't really know how to describe how to do it. So hopefully you understand.

Then sew the side seams down. Do the facings separately from the pretty outside. There will be no seams showing at all if you did it right. The bottom will still be open.

Next you have to put in the buttons holes for the back. I got those buttons from our "school supplies" I use them to practice making pattens with the boys. There were tons of cool shapes in rainbow colors. I love just using what I have on hand. I also sewed the back shut just at the bottom so I could put in the skirt.

The skirt is just a gathered rectangle. I made it one and a half times the width front and back. Or three times the front of the dress. Mine is 10.5 inches tall.

For the ruffle around the bottom I made a strip twice as long as the top and 6 inches wide. I ironed it in half then gathered it. So you don't have to hem!!

Yay you have a dress now. You just need to make it prettier. 

I sewed a one inch gross grain ribbon just across the front. Leaving each edge of the ribbon free to tie in the back. I just sewed at the top of the ribbon. Covering where the top and bottom of the dress is joined. I actually drew a line on the front of the fabric to make sure I got it on straight. It's pretty awkward to sew around the inside after the skirt is attached.  Oh and before I sewed it in I made a little loop to attach the bow. Just like on a head band. Make sure you burn all the edges with a lighter so they wont fray.

Finally the Bow!! It is literally just a hair bow. I wanted to be able to take it off when I wash the dress so it will always look good :)

If you want a tutorial for that I'll have to do it another day. It is a very basic bow. And if you have ever made a hair bow then this would be very easy to figure out!!

Scott's real Birthday

Here is the sad truth. I was just done with it being Scotty's birthday. I didn't want to hear him ask for more presents again. Or ask if his friends could come over again and bring him more presents. I feel like both my boys are getting to be really spoiled. So I'm putting my foot down and I'm not buying them stuff when we go to the store. Usually I will let them get a small toy or a candy treat if they have a big enough smile on their face when they do the asking. But no more. If they want to buy stuff they need to do their chores and earn some money.

Anyways... We had to do something for his actual birthday. He said he wanted a whale cake so we made him this:

 I forgot to give Mike his fork at the same time as the cake.

It was a very easy plan. I was glad that he wanted that. I also let him pick his dinner. This year he wanted pizza. So we made pizza and I let him decorate it himself : ) We did have a fun little party for him.

Also Grandma Anderson sent him some money for his birthday so we went out today and bought him this really cool block set. I think it is the stage in between Lego and mega blocks. They were called trio, I had never seen them before but they remind me of those square blocks I played with in elementary school when we were learning to count and do math. They are really cool. I really like that they come with a book that is easy to read and follow for Scott. At the top of the page it tells you what parts you need so Scott has to recognize the number written out, then count it out and find the pieces and then figure out how to put it together. So I think it is going to make him smarter which is also cool. Mikey really liked them too. Yeah and they were fun for me too. I like that they really snap together so you can play with the thing you made when you are done. He also got a Bakugon toy. His new obsession. So thanks Grandma and Grandpa you got Scott some really cool toys this year for his birthday. We will try to call again to say thank you in person.

Does this face remind you of anyone else?

These were our first cherry tomatoes : ) They were yummy.

Where are we going? Clap Clap Clap... To the beach!

It was a beautiful day!! I think it was 28* the perfect day to go to the beach!! After some confusion about where we were going we finally had directions in hand and were ready to go by about 1:00. We went to lake Huron and it was blue and clear and good to swim. In Anderson tradition we stopped by KFC for some chicken to eat there. I also made some potato salad and got a lot of fruit. Here are the boys eating.

The boys loved playing in the water. They had a great time playing together.

I buried Scott in the sand and made him look like a merman. 

 

The boys had a fun time pressing their faces into the sand. They are boys that's all I can say. lol

Scotty did get his tongue covered in sand. But I couldn't get the camera out in time and he was able to spit. Yuck. I think he learned his lesson:)

Mikey made a rock tower. And Scotty found a big stick.

It makes me so happy when I see the boys playing together. I think the sicker I am getting the closer the boys are becoming. So another high five for morning sickness. We ended the day with another Anderson family tradition of getting ice cream cones!! My husbands favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla so that is mostly all we ever have at the house. So I'm not really tempted to have ice cream so much. But the ice cream at the shop was so good. It was a fruity cheesecake kind. By far the best ice cream I have had in a very long time. I think it might be the best I have had in my life. yum yum yum. They even had spider-man flavor for the little guys and Tyler got caramel cheesecake. :)

An interesting potty training idea

So Mike is old enough to be potty trained. He is capable of doing it. He can nap without having an accident. He just doesn't mind sitting in his pee if he has a diaper on. But if I let him run around with a bare bum he is perfect. Too bad my husband doesn't approve this method. Underwear just doesn't work with him. One funny thing that the boys really like to do is pee at the same time. So whenever Scotty has to go he says to Mikey, "hey lets go pee at the same time."  They think it is really fun to make the pee touch. They will race for the bathroom and it really helps Mike to get the motivation to make the trek to the bathroom. I think it is so cute that they are best friends and they literally want to do everything together. LOL!!! Sorry no picture with this post ;)

FireWorks!!

So Tyler hates going to the fireworks because there is so much traffic after the show. So I decided that I would just take the boys and we would have a fun time. We packed up the car and headed to Tyler's school parking lot to see the show. We got there and it was about a half an hour till the show. So we decided that we would go a little closer. We got out the stroller and the camping chair and headed to the water. We did get the perfect spot. We were waiting till the show started and we were having a great time.

Sadly this is mike 10 minutes before the show started.

And this is Scott 5 minutes before the show started.

I could not wake them up. I shook them. I took off their blankets. I sat them up and dropped them back down. Nothing. Finally I tickled them. Scott woke up to see the finale. Here are some pictures.

Good thing that I really love fireworks because I didn't really think of a way to get back to the car if both the boys were sleeping. All I had was our cheap umbrella stroller. And we had our double camping chair which is quite heavy. Scott was too tired to even sit in stroller. He kept crying that he wanted to sit on his knees, but if he did that there wasn't enough weight to keep the stroller balanced. I put the camping chair strap over the back of the stroller and balanced Mike (who was completely dead to the world) on the chair. They were heavy. And we had to go up two big hills. And I was wearing flip flops that I had to take off to be able to make it up the hill.  To make things worse that was the first time that I had ever been to that part of campus and it was really dark. I was following the crowd to across the field and I went in the wrong direction to the car. So instead of walking in a straight line to the car we made a giant V. I had to ask strangers for direction twice. I really had no idea where I was.  At least Scott was whining so much about having to sit in the stroller that he eventually woke up Mike, and Mike walked the rest of the way to the car. He was really cute he was saying I'm being strong and walking for baby. But yeah. I really don't advise going to the fireworks alone with two young kids.

Actually I think it would have been really fun if they didn't sleep through it. If they had enjoyed the fireworks it would have all been worth it. Anyways Happy Canada Day!!

Canada Day!!

Happy Canada Day!! We went to Guelph for a day at the park. We had a lot of fun because Daddy came.

Here is the boys in front of the big clock.

We played in a little bounce house. And we got to ride a carousel. And ride a pony!

They got their face painted. And we just had a fun time. It was all free to do the activities. We just paid a 5$ donation when we went in. So the lines were very long. But the boys did have fun between the lines. The drama of the day was we lost Scott for a few minutes. They actually found him really fast but then I was lost. So the boys were together and I was lost :( It was scary. But we found him and we were thankful.