My love of sewing....and my little model

Since becoming a stay-at-home mom, I've found a love for sewing.  My history with sewing isn't very long at all.  As a graduation gift to myself in 2010 I bought a sewing machine.  Oddly, I can't recall for sure why I wanted one so badly but I'm grateful that I bought one.  I don't think I even took it out of the box for 6 months after it arrived because of how crazy my life was with getting married, moving out from my apartment, James' going to the field for a month, moving to California, sending James off to Afghanistan, moving back to Boston, and then finally moving to Watertown from Brighton.  In my Watertown apartment I had a roommate that was an amazing seamstress and she showed me how to work my sewing machine. (Far left girl)

 Since I was married I attended a different ward than my roommates, and I made a friend in that ward who also was a great seamstress.  She offered to get together with me and teach me some sewing skills.  I loved it!  I felt it was one of the blessings the Lord gave me for enduring my crazy life. :) 

After moving to California for the final time I was really busy with my new job and new marriage so I still didn't sew very much, just some Christmas decorations.  When Annie was born I couldn't find a reasonably priced blessing dress that I liked so I sort of developed the wild idea that I could just sew one myself.  I looked around for ideas and then bought a pattern and fabric.  I knew at the time it probably wouldn't look that great but I worked really hard on it and tried my best to follow the directions perfectly.  Now that I've learned so much more about sewing I can easily see how home-made it looks but at the time I was so proud that I had sewed it all by myself. Since that time a love and interest in sewing really grew.

I mostly sewed clothing for Annie but a few months ago I decided to sew clothes for myself.  I'm still not that great but I greatly enjoy the process of taking a big piece of fabric and slowly constructing it into something wearable.  I'll occasionally get up from my sewing machine and try my clothes on to see how the fit looks.  I guess Annie thinks it looks fun and she always wants a turn to wear whatever it is I'm trying on.  I'm such a lucky girl to have a tiny model to try my clothes on. :)

So here we are today, very early September and I've just had the itch to get started on Annie's Halloween costume.  I've been sitting on some costume patterns and fabric for a while now and just got the urge to get started.  I really liked the Tangled costume pattern so I think that's what she will be for Halloween.  Because the patterns don't usually fit her body well I always have to do some muslin fittings first.  Instead of muslin, though, I used cheap bed sheet materials to cut and baste together the bodice and check the fit on her.  Using the pattern pieces exactly for her size produced a lower cut than I would prefer and I thought the bodice seemed a bit short for her torso, especially considering that this fitting already looked short including the seam allowance.
  

Since I didn't like the pattern fit I altered the pattern a bit to raise the neckline and extend the bodice down.  I think this works much better.  When I sewed Annie's costume last year I had to readjust the pattern 4 times before I found a fit that worked for her.  I'm glad Annie enjoys trying my projects on. 

I'm still not really good at sewing and have tremendous amounts to learn but I just love the process so much.  Sewing is also a huge blessing to me since I'm no longer in school or working, I really need an activity to keep me learning and challenging myself.  I only wish sewing were a cheaper hobby. :)