Long Time No See

Gee, it's been a long weekend! It was Prom for us this past weekend, which entailed decorating on Friday after school and late into the evening, doing more of the same all day on Saturday, changing clothes to go back and chaperone, and then staying late into the night after the dance to take all the decorations down and pack them away for another year. Just typing about it makes me tired.

But it's worth every second. The young ladies in their beautiful dresses, like a mass of spring flowers in full bloom. Gorgeous. And yall know how I feel about pretty dresses! I look forward to it every year.

This year I sat with a friend and co-worker who also sews, and we spent quite some time discussing the different dresses. She had altered quite a few of them for the girls. Brave soul, she is...hemming chiffon layers and beaded fabrics is difficult and time consuming work. We had fun.

By late Sunday afternoon I had recovered enough strength to work on Little Miss Sunshine:




I'm getting close to finishing the smocking on this one. And I decided to use two shades of blue for the main panel of smocking, instead of just dark blue. I like the effect--click on it for a larger picture. I also have an idea for a different sleeve treatment on this one, but I need to give it a little more thought.....

And this came in the mail. It's a size 1, perfect for The Princess. I think I have the perfect piece of fabric for this one around here somewhere (or more likely, I have about 6 perfect pieces of fabric).



Here's the back:




Since our summers are so hot here, I like the little blue pinafore. It would make a cute little sundress, I think.

And even though I haven't done much actual sewing/smocking, I have had a couple of ideas percolating around in my head. For the upcoming idea I'm giving you fair warning that I CANNOT DRAW AT ALL. Here's evidence to that fact:





The sketch (gee, I'm embarassed to even refer to this thing as a sketch) on the left represents a pair of outgrown blue jeans that have been staring at me for a while. They do not want to go to the Salvation Army. At all. And since the Salvation Army store we had here is now scattered over 38 squares miles on the north side of town, they can't. So they have no Spoken To Me.

They want to be converted into a sundress for a young lady. Due to their size, they would best work in a size 8 to 12, I think. On the right side is my idea. I could use the front for a bodice piece, hopefully incorporating the pocket detail. I could use the legs for the back bodice and straps. And as I was finishing this masterpiece up, they Spoke Further and insisted that the back pockets be reused as front pockets. I shaded in the parts that would be denim.

What do you think? Has anyone done this before?