Tea and the green dress

Today Deborah and I had tea at the library. We heard Laura Schaefer read and talk about her new book The Teashop Girls. It was so great for Deborah to meet a real published author. And she is a local Madisonian. Both Deborah and I read the book beforehand. I think it was fun for her to read about girls in our own town with references to places we know about. She was such a friendly lady, I hope her books do well and she writes many more.


The green dress is almost done! Just buttons and buttonholes left to do, hopefully tonight won't be too crazy and I can get them done.

I added a lace ruffle around the circular flat lace.

The sleeves are smocked with the same colors as the neckline.  I added 1 1/2 inches to the sleeve length, folded that extra up and ran the bottem edge of the sleeve through the pleater. That way the edge of the sleeve looks finished. Then when I closed up the underarm seam with french seams I made sure the end of the first seam was securly tucked inside the second seam.

I hand stitched the four-inch deap hem. This way it can easily be let down as the child grows. Corduroy tends to leave a mark when you let out the hem. Sometimes I would tack on a matching ribbon or lace around the hem line on Deborah's dresses. I thought it looked more finished and less noticable that the hem had been let out.

First item on Etsy

I just posted the pink daygown on Etsy. It took longer than I thought it would to set up the store and get the photos the correct size, etc. But I am now officially a seller on Etsy.

I have started the next dress. This one is a smocked bishop with short sleeves. I debated about long or short sleeves in my mind for some time but decided to go with the short sleeves. They look so sweet. And not everywhere is as cold as Wisconsin! That's the wonderful thing about the internet.

Here is a picture of the dress cut out.

It is pink polka-dots on white background. Very cute. I am planning to smock it in pink and have a hand sewn scalloped hem.