A few weeks ago my good friend came to visit since moving out of state and I was totally inspired to make a bag for her since she had recently given birth to Baby Josie her 8th child and also celebrated an important birthday. Jen is really the inspiration behind my fabric choice, you see I picked it out to make a bag for her. I've started the bag and intended to make another bag at the same time, maybe one to sell but then after looking at the fabric sit on my table and get shuffled around it was lying next to a crisp white fabric that i had made Gabby's bloomers out of and this overwhelming thought came over me that i needed to make Gabby a dress.
Since it's getting closer to feeling like fall I decided to make a blouse and jumper. I had part of a pattern for a top but the collar was huge and the sleeves were not part of the pattern so I added my own and they seem to work. The collar I cut down after realizing the "pattern" (which I used only for the pieces but should consider reading in the future) made a collar which touched her shoulders, a bit too big for my little girl.
The jumper presented it's own challenges, in the end I realized, thanks to skyping with Mom, that the bib in the front was too small. The waist band needs to be tacked down in places still to have more of a scrunched affect. Upon dressing Gabriella I realized that the ties on the jumper are not practical, even though i thought earlier that they would give more options for size, in the end unless your baby is sleeping I don't see how they're going to work realistically, getting everything evenly adjusted with the crisscross in the back. The other issue with the ties is that they get in the way of the collar so a top with no collar would work best.
After cutting out the top and putting it together and on I realized that I had cut it too short, ideally I wanted a little peplum on the bottom so i added more fabric and now she can wear the top with a skirt and it works well.
I've decided to embrace her Afro and will start making hair wraps hoping she'll let me keep them on her head.
This has been another big learning experience and soon I'll be back to Jen's bag once I make a quick trip to the fabric store for a little more of the yellow fabric, good thing it's close and a current fabric.
