*updated with winner, below*
Several months ago, my mom happened upon a local fabric store she hadn't any idea existed a few mere miles from her house.
"Bec! You will not BELIEVE this place! You must come with me next time you come down!"
So I did. Our next trip to my parent's house in Encinitas (Hal, kids and I go down to visit every month-ish) my mom and I went a shopping. For fabric. And whoa-eesh, had fun. Hours later we returned to the car with a giant bag of fabric including small scraps.
"These would make perfect pockets!"
"And this for the trim?"
"Oh, totally. High five!"
"High five!"
My mother taught me to sew when I was pregnant with Fable, desperate to nest in a house where nesting wasn't really in the cards so she sat me down with my sister's sewing machine and taught me.
I've been dying to sew ever since but haven't had the time nor the sewing-without-my-mom-nearby-skills (not to mention a sewing machine) to do so. My mother on the other hand... can pretty much do anything and do it well so I gave her my blessing to sew her brains out without me (so long as she promised to incorporate some of my fabric choices/ideas.)
And she did. And when she finished our dresses she went BACK to ANOTHER (even MORE amazing) fabric store and made five more. Behold:
Nine Dresses, Three Patterns
1. First three dresses made with the easiest of all patterns. You can find it here. (It's called "Shoulder Tie-topper." Be sure to scroll down.) Great pattern for beginners and so effing cute.
2. This next dress/pattern is adorable and so perfect for playing. It's a super easy on/off with no buttons or strings. You can find it, here. Also incredibly easy (or so says WWW.)
This green dress is my favorite. Fable's madly in love with birds and when this arrived in the mail Fable had a conniption of happy (these photos were taken on a very hot day at a very hot park, hence the not-so-stoked face.) She literally threw the dress in the air and fell backwards with glee.
3. My fave pattern is this one also available on Erica's. It's called "Macy Giggle Sundress" and you can find it here. (Once again, you'll have to scroll. I cannot link individual patterns unfortunately.)
Okay so I lied about the green bird dress being my favorite dress. THIS is my all-time favorite dress ever to have hanged in Fable's closet period the end:
(My mom made it out of curtain fabric)
I think it might be hers, too.
So! Because everyone has been so kind commenting on Fable's dresses both here and on flickr, my mother has offered you, my reader(s) one custom-made dress for your daughter/niece/future child? I'll be picking one winner at random next Tuesday PM. To win? Tell me about your favorite dress. (Mine is a little black number with ruffles on the chest.) Good luck and happy sewing!
GGC
*Congratulations to commenter #59, Emily! My mom is super stoked to make you a custom-made dress especially (and I quote her because she's sitting next to me as I type this) "because you live next to David!" (My brother ALSO lives in Somerville.) Email me ASAP and I'll hook you up with WWW to discuss size/fabric/pattern! To the rest of you, thank you all so much for participating! This was such a fun giveaway and my mom and I so appreciate all of your comments, stories, awesome.
