Ryann's birthday dress

Okay, let me just start this off by emphasizing that I am not a sewer. When I was little I used to sew with my grandma some. I made a few sweet vests, that I proudly wore to school in 2nd or 3rd grade. My mother in law made all of Ryann's bedding and I did play around with her machine some. Enough to make a diaper and wipe case, that fell apart within a few weeks. So that is the extent of my history in sewing. So please keep that in mind, and no making fun. Atleast not to my face =)

My daughter Ryann's birthday is Saturday and for quite some time now I have been racking my brains on what to do for her birthday and what to kind of "theme" it around. I don't like throwing big parties. Especially when they are so young. But I do like to make them special. Last year I baked my first cake EVER and it turned out pretty awesome. Just sayin. I used fondant icing and it was beautiful. Not great to eat though. So THIS year I figured Ryann would be in to something. Micaila LOVED the Backyardigans so I did that theme. So easy. But Ryann..... well.... she just loves dogs. I'm like, ugh, puppies?? Puppy decor is so...... well they are dogs. In person yeah cute but wheres the pink?? Where's the bright colors and the fun music and sweet balloons. I don't want my parents house covered with fur balls. We have two real ones taking care of that. But Ryann has not developed any new interests so dogs it is. Thus, this dress I made.

I went to Jo Ann fabrics, me and the girls, which by the way is a whole blog in itself. (Not fun!) Mainly because it took me forever to pick out the fabric, find a cute dog to go on the dress, the ribbon, the thread... I had no clue what I was doing. And holy moly! Sewing is not a cheap hobby. So of course I had to go with paisley, I just love paisley, it's so adorable. And I think this stuff was like 4.99 a yard, so compared to some of the other fabric it was cheap.




I had spotted this fabric and I thought I could do a little bit of it at the bottom of the dress to really get that doggy feel, lol.


And this was the only puppy applique that I could find that wasn't a poodle and was big enough.



So I did all that shopping yesterday morning. Wednesday. I got to Jo Anns at about 9:30 and got home after 11:00am. Oh and that's when I started making my bow. Then I went to my mother in laws and picked up her sewing machine. We sort of went over the basics but I pretty much forgot everything she said. I remember her saying not to touch a specific dial lol. That's about it. So when I started sewing this morning I had to go online and find a manual for this super old Singer. Thank you http://www.sewusa.com/!

I had decided on the "pillow case" dress but obviously I wasn't starting with a pillow case and who buys patterns?? I figured this dress would be a breeze, it looked so simple. And for the most part it was. I only had to de hem like 3 times.... So after much trial and error, I finally got it together. And here it is =) It looks pretty cute on "Bootsy" but I wont post a picture of her in it till after her bday party.

Notice no puppy applique..... yeeeaaah I sort of melted it with the iron and need to get another one. I guess I didn't read the directions right, or maybe it's just I don't really know how to use an iron. I'm just glad it didn't mess the dress up!