Clare's New Dress

I used to sew a lot.  Amy wore lots of homemade clothes when she was little and I completed plenty of  my own outfits along with crafts of all kinds. I particularly remember a Spiderman (or was it Superman?) blanket that I stayed up way late into the night to get finished for a gift for Brian.

Sewing wasn't easy for me.  It took years before I figured out that reading the pattern carefully went a long way toward completing a project without tedious time spent in ripping out. When I finally broke down and started basting things together before putting in the final seams, I truly realized the worth of doing things the long way.

But I haven't taken on a sewing project for a really long time.  It just isn't as practical to sew anymore.  Patterns and material and notions cost a lot of money.  Sewing things at home isn't as cost efficient as it used to be.  Maybe that's why the dress I just finished for Clare (the new American Girl doll) cost around $20.00 and two trips to the fabric store to make.  The dress fits an 18" doll but it might as well have been a ball gown for a real live Cinderella for all the sweat that went into it.  The thread on the machine kept breaking because I didn't recall the correct way to load the bobbin.  I ran out of thread and had to fill the bobbin and rethread the machine at least three times.  That's a real challenge since I can  barely, just BARELY see the eye of the needle.  I had to rip out and replace one sleeve and, remember, this is a doll dress so the sleeve consisted of only three inches of material to work with.  Still, imagine how tricky it is to get that eased in sleeve properly placed on the machine for stitching.  And it's not easy to press tiny seams open.  Thank goodness the velcro fastening the back of the bodice together didn't give me any problems.  I had this horror that I'd have to rip stitches out of velcro and that, I'm sure, is a seamstress's nightmare.

But a new dress awaits Clare who will be here along with the family tomorrow for a Labor Day weekend barbecue.  Now I just keep my fingers crossed that the ultra picky Alicia will like it. And it only took an hour flat on my back on the couch to straighten out the kinks in my neck and shoulders from leaning over  a hot sewing machine.