I saw a really cute dress in Ottobre and decided to make it, but I didn’t want to use a nice fabric since I wanted to test it out first. It’s made with a really cute babycord and binded with babycord of a different print.

This is what it’s supposed to look like. It’s from the Ottobre magazine 4/2007 issue.

I came across some cute vintage corduroy in eBay and thought that it looked cute. It was cheap and no one seemed to want it. I wonder why… What was I thinking? It ended up sitting there and I couldn’t find anything I could make with this. Ideally the garment should be a simple design since the print is so busy and colorful. Then I decided to use this to test out the Ottobre pinafore dress.

Here’s my dizzy sailor girl version. I get dizzy just looking at it:

I couldn’t find anything to coordinate with this print so I ended up using the same fabric to do the binding for the neck and armholes. In addition, this is a medium weight corduroy, not a fine babycord, hence it’s permanently flaring out and does not fall smoothly. I will try to get a picture with R in it.

However, this was a good practice since it was the first time I put in an invisible zipper and it came out really nice too.

I definitely chose the wrong fabric for the project. A busy print is better for a simpler design. However it did a very good job hiding my mistakes…

Chinese New Year (which is going to be the Year of the Tiger) will be on the same day as Valentine’s Day this year. It would be the perfect opportunity to be lazy and make one dress for both occasions. Traditionally, we all need to wear new clothes, preferably in red, for Chinese New Year. However, times are tough, so here’s what I came up with.

First I have this 18M Room Seven Doy Dress that I bought and R only wore once because once I put it on her I almost couldn’t take it off. The top part is corduroy and the dress was not stretchy. Poor girl. She was just able to stand up at the time.

Here’s R when she was just one year old… It looks like she was kneeling down.

I was totally in love with that dress and couldn’t part with it. Yes, I still have it not knowing what I was going to do with it. Maybe R migth want to give it to her daughter…

Then I have this 3T Room Seven top that has a neck opening that’s way too small for R:

Then I remembered seeing all those projects that people take some piece of old clothing and magically turned into something else. I thought maybe I could try it, since all I would have to do in this case is attaching the top to the skirt.

This is what I ended up with. It was not too difficult to do, along with some not so nice words when trying to do the binding. The neckline comes out looking a little weird. I wanted the waist to be elastic so I used a clear elastic tape to make the ruffles at the top edge. It looks like the body might be too long, so I need to try this on R and see if I need to rip it out and redo it.

From time to time I’ve been pleasantly surprised by things I see at Old Navy. Their prices are reasonable and quality is not bad at all. I’ve also found that their nicer things sell like hotcakes. You snooze you lose!

Look at this! I should sign up R for ballet lesson so she can wear this. Wait, I saw this one a week ago and the bigger sizes are already sold out! I really like the grey one, but it’s totally gone! I’m totally kicking myself. Okay, I guess ballet lessons can wait…

I love the ruffle details on this one. The ruffles at the neck has two layers, one wider on the bottom. That’s ingenious!

And look at this one with all those ruffles! Any girl will look like a doll in this dress.

Aren’t these dresses amazing? These are things that I can actually afford! It’s really hard to resist buying and keep on sewing when they make things this cute and affordable. I have to say Old Navy have got some great designers. I will definitely keep checking for ideas.

I’m actually getting productive in the sewing department. Now I wish I could be as good with cleaning up the house, but there will always be time left for that, right?

Here’s the 2nd play dress I sewed up for R. It’s a Baby Lulu ribbed knit using the same Ottobre 1/2009 Muru Jersey Tunic altered to look like a Hanna play dress. Sorry, I have to work on taking better pictures.