Sew All 26: A

It's finally here! We are sewing through the alphabet! I'm really looking forward to these weekly challenges throughout the school year.  My kids have been in school for a few weeks now, but I wanted to make sure those who were starting later could participate as well.  As I was getting ready, I had all sorts of ideas for other letters, besides A, but I suppose I ought to go alphabetically ;).  If you follow me on instagram, you know I'm loving on my brand new nephew.  I am out of town, helping my little sister with her kids, so my sweet niece, Mary Deane, was the first recipient of Sew All 26!

She's a huge fan of pink.  Me?  Not so much.  Having 5 girls in a row does that to you, I suppose.  But, I did want to create something that she would love, so I used it as an accent.  My mom and I went to G Street Fabrics here in Virginia before she left to go home and we were overwhelmed by the beautiful, unique fabrics.  We were also overwhelmed by the prices.  I told her that I just always love the most expensive fabrics.  The wool!  Which, considering our current climate, is absurd to buy.

I found this lovely grey/white seersucker on the remnant table for $3/yard and bought 4, knowing there was going to be lots of gathering.  The pink was on the upholstery remnant table for the same price (it was actually more, but the lady said it was such a small piece, that she'd give it to me for the same price: hooray!)

Mary Deane was thrilled to be in a photo shoot ;).  I left the top bodice with a bit of extra room to accomodate her feeding tube.  I didn't want it to be uncomfortably tight.  I used one of her t-shirts for the general sizing and fit.

>>TIP<< >>How to make the arrows?  Cut strips of bias one direction on a striped fabric, and then the opposite direction.  You can't just flip the strip, it will still be the same direction.  Fold the strip in half and sew a cord in the middle, as though you're making piping, but instead of sewing it within a seam, you just stitch it on the fabric front, making sure the arrows meet.  If they're a little bit off, stretch or compress until they form an arrow.<<

The raw edges might get a little texture over time, but won't fray since it's cut on the bias.  Everything is lined except the sleeves.  The second skirt layer has two tiers for more fluff.  Pink and fluff!

The artwork on the wall is Mary Deane's namesake, my maternal grandmother, created by my mom.  I love it.

That's a whole lot of hemming right there, and probably close to 4 yards of fabric altogether!

I did a placket all the way up the back with covered buttons.  

And Sheepie got a skirt to match, of course.

The vote seems to be in favor of doing a link-up here on my blog instead of posting photos on Flickr.  That way it's easier to check out what other people are doing.  I'm new to using the link tools, so we will see how this first one goes and perhaps make improvements and tweaks as we go along.  I will leave them open for several weeks to allow anyone to add their links even if they get behind.  I look forward to seeing what you create!