Madeline Maxi Dress by Serendipity Studio

I fell in love with this dress as soon as it was published by Serendipity Studio.  I had the perfect fabric, Secret Garden by Sandi Henderson.  I just had to find the spare minutes to put it together.  I finished it in time for my trip, but couldn't get a good picture until recently.

This is an easy dress to construct.  I little tricky if you want to fit the bust line a little fuller.  I added a dart to the bust line.  It has a lot of top-stitching.  I have a few wrinkles in the midsection.  I am not sure if I twisted my fabric as I was sewing or if the change in fabric thicknesses from the print to solid is causing the ripple. 

Pins helped me mark the angles for topstitching!!!!

I wore the dress on my Hawaii trip.  This was a great picture, but just only the top of the dress showed.

Girl's World, Part 3 Tallulah Halter Dress

I made this dress back when I did reviews of two other dresses from Jennifer Paganelli's book, Girl's World.  I could never get the dress cleaned, ironed, and photographed to blog.  My daughter has worn it a lot and I happen to catch a few photos at my son's TaeKwonDo competition recently.  (It has rained a monsoon in Southeast Texas and outside pictures are not happening today.)

This is a quick afternoon project.  It goes together well and looks great on a little one.  I didn't make the side vents in this dress because if I give my daughter the legroom to climb a tree in it, she will.  It would then become a stress point and end up in the mending pile.  I wanted to give it a little embellishment, so I used the rick-rack flower from Kari Mecca's Sewing with Whimsy book.  I sewed it to a matching piece of felt and added a bead to the center.

My two son's train with Jean Lopez, the US Olympic coach for Tae Kwon Do.  We have the privilege to see the whole Lopez family a lot.  The family is sending 2 siblings to compete in the London Games and one to coach.  My daughter, who is not shy, gave Steven Lopez a hard time about not recognizing him one day at the school.  (She had met him more than a dozen times.)  He told her to remember his face, because she would see him in a few days.

At the National Tae Kwon Do tournament a few days later, everyone knew the Lopez family and wanted their autograph and picture.  After sitting next to them for a few hours, I leaned over to my daughter and asked her if anyone else was having a hard time recognizing them or was it just her.  She rolled her eyes and knew she was had.  We made her take a picture with Steven as her strong dose of medicine for giving him a hard time.

Morgan with Steven Lopez

It has been a great life experience for my boys to train with the Lopez family.  Jean Lopez is a great coach that encourages and demands the best from his students.  Diana and Steven are always cheering for the kids.  (Most kids would dream of their sport's Olympic athletes cheering for them.)  The Lopez's draw athletes from all over the world to our corner of town.  My boys know and have been coached by 3 coaches that will serve at the London Games and 3 athletes that will compete at the Games.  We wish them the best!  We can't wait to see their gold medals!

David with Jean Lopez

Dillon sporting his shirt.

Birthday Party Annika

We are ready for all those summer birthday parties with this dress from Maja's Heirlooms, named Annika.  I used a version of Little Memories smocking plate "Cupcake Party" on the insert.  White broadcloth was used for the collar with the pink polka-dot self piping.

This collar is so cute and retro.  I only added a few inches of length to the dress and made it according to the directions.

The original smocking plate had the word "Party" across it, but I decided to add the extra cupcakes and drop the word.  I have a new camera and I am experimenting with photographing my smocking.  I am discovering that photos of smocking show every bobble in your stitches.

I have survived our "surprise" kitchen remodel.  It only takes 12" of rain in 6 hours to get just a little water in the house and cause lots of problems.  We moved out of the downstairs for a week for the floors and then another week for the kitchen cabinets.  I am so happy to make home cooked meals.

Kitchen one week after flood.

Kitchen now.

Breakfast area 

Other side of kitchen 

Our life is never dull, so we added a trip to Dallas to the USAT National Championships for Tae Kwon Do for my two oldest sons to compete.  The oldest got 2nd and the next oldest got third.  

USAT Nationals with my two oldest boys.

Since the house remodel, I am happily settling into my sewing room  and trying to figure out where I put everything.  More summer projects soon.