A Whole Year.

Somehow a year of my life just raced by me. Everyone said not to blink when Bean was born because it goes by so fast. Blah blah blah, I thought. I might have even written it here some where: she's never going to grow up. And here we are, getting ready to celebrate her first birthday this week. Sigh.

It's been a while since I've updated this blog here because, as if having an infant wasn't insane enough, we decided we needed to buy a new house...and put ours on the market. Trying to make your house look like you aren't living in it with an 11-month-old may seem laughable to anyone who has had an 11-month-old, and let me assure you, it is. But somehow we have managed to keep the sink basins wiped clean, the toys corralled in bins, and the diaper pail empty so that complete strangers can poke through our house. However, this has required that we remove a lot of stuff from the house that we didn't immediately need which included, I'm sad to say, much of my craft room (What? Not every potential buyer is going to want to use one of the bedrooms to store ribbon and glitter?!)

Of course, Bean's first birthday couldn't be store-bought so I have soldiered on. Actually, decisions such as which fabric to use for the birthday dress have been simpler now that most of my stash is in storage and I've found myself really using what I have rather than going out to buy more or different supplies. This seems oddly counter-intuitive, but there you have it.Her birthday dress is entirely from stash materials, a fantastic matryoshka print that I think I bought as a remnant with some striped shirting that I got at a 4-H festival fabric rummage sale. The fact that I bought not a thing for this dress has me pretty proud, but I must also toot my own horn for a moment because this represents my first Ottobre project. Me! The fake sewer who makes it all up as I go along! Who doesn't really know how to read patterns! Yup, I sewed this Ottobre project. Which has, of course, justified my purchasing another subscription...

Now, there are certain things that I didn't know how to do at all. It took me a while to figure out what a placket was, for instance. But I get that now. There were a few other steps that were just plain mysterious to me so I decided to skip them. Uh, huh...that's how I roll when I'm at the helm of my sewing machine. I figure, if it looks like a dress, hangs on her like a dress, and will last through at least one party, I've done my job. Happily, I think it's going to stay together quite nicely through a few wearings (at least until she outgrows it next week), even with the omitted details. Also, even though I have no business changing a pattern since I'm such a newbie, I decided to make the underskirt all one piece rather than using the cotton batiste and sewing on a panel. I didn't have any batiste and I didn't want to buy anything new. Plus, I had plenty of that shirting fabric so I didn't care about using a whole bunch of it...which, of course, is all relative considering this is a dress built for a person who is about 2 feet tall.

Some accomplishments (besides the fact that I actually sewed an Ottobre project...did I mention that?) include my very first attempt at french seams (poking out on the underskirt here).

I swear, you stick the term french on something and it makes it seem like it's going to be super complicated, but french seems are quite easy and they look sweet. My first pintucks...also super-simple and very pretty for the extra effort. Oh! And I am quite fond of my top stitching which is a step I usually get bored with and muck up. And not really note-worthy, but here's a shot of the back with some lovely vintage buttons to seal the deal.I wanted to make matching bloomers, but I need to bake cookies and a cake (all while making it look like I don't use my kitchen to do things like bake cookies and cakes) so I might let myself off the hook with that one. I made some bunting from vintage sheets which I'll photograph at the party and blog about later because they are so much fun they deserve their own post. And I finally used a bunch of the tissue paper I've hoarded for the past decade to make some of these fantastic poufs. Photos after the party!