My honorary niece Olivia turned nine this year, and here is a post about her birthday present.
For Olivia's presents, I follow the formula of "something to wear, something to read, and something to play with". The something to wear was a summer dress with a matching purse. I selected the pattern you see above, Butterick B6908, for the dress, and I chose to view A without the side cut outs, or view B without the sleeves.
The finished dress in a size 10. It's a rather stylish-looking number that I'd expect many a grown woman would be happy to wear if it were sized up for her.
It was a little difficult to match this fabric in a button, or for that matter in thread. The background colour is what I would describe as a creamy pale pink rather than a white, and I could not use white thread for it. Fabricland didn't have the right length of invisible zipper in an appropriate shade, so I had to buy a too-long zipper and cut it down to the right size. As for the button, Fabricland had nothing and I had to visit a notions store on Queen and hunt through their button collection for something that would do.
As for the purse, I didn't like the idea of doing it in the same floral pattern as the dress, as it seemed like a little much of a good thing. I looked through the fabrics I had on hand to see what might coordinate with that floral fabric, and there was a green satin I had bought to make a new light bathrobe for me, so I used some of that for it, and just lined the purse in the floral fabric. (I cut the bathrobe pieces out first to be sure there would be enough left over for the purse). I used the pattern Vogue 9893 for it, view B. I've had that pattern for over 20 years, made I don't know how many little purses from it, and this was the first time I ever used that particular view.
The bag has an inside pocket and is reversible, though I think it looks better green side out. It looked a little plain as was, though, and I wondered what I could do to fancy it up a bit. I came up with the idea of making a fabric flower, which I could stitch to the bag. This idea quickly blossomed (see what I did there) into the idea of making a beaded flower brooch that Olivia could wear on the purse, or her dress, or another outfit entirely, just as she wished. I had plenty of beads and some brooch pins in my jewelry- making supplies box, so it would be a nice added touch that wouldn't cost a thing. I did some googling for flower brooch patterns and tutorials.
I soon found this video from Red Blossom Designs on YouTube, and had a go at it. I thought my fabric was too flimsy for this design, so I cut out circles of interfacing and ironed them on to my satin circles. Then the fabric was too stiff and I ended up throwing the whole shebang into the garbage and beginning again. This was my *second* attempt, and it still didn't look right at all.
This is the back of the second attempt. I didn't like the way the crafter in the YouTube video did the back of their brooch, so for mine, I cut out an extra circle of the satin and a smaller circle of stiff interfacing, covered the interfacing with the satin, basted it in place, stitched the brooch pin firmly onto the covered circle, then stitched the circle onto the back of the brooch. That at least worked out well.
My third attempt at making the brooch turned out much better, though a few of the petals still don't have quite the right shape. This brooch-making method would probably work best with a somewhat stiffer fabric. (In the video, the crafter uses what looks like a cotton and/or polyester print fabric.) I wound up using the back of the brooch as the front in my version, as I preferred the look the gathered petals on that side to the folded ones of the front. Sewing on random small beads until the raw edges were all covered worked better than sewing one one large bead and then circles of other beads too -- it looks more naturalistic. Once I had the third attempt all beaded and decided it was good enough to go, I picked apart my second attempt at the brooch, putting the beads from it back in my bead box, and reusing the backing circle for the third version of the brooch, so at least I didn't have do that part all over again.
The purse with its decoration. I think it adds something.
Olivia can wear the brooch pinned on her dress if she likes. This is a rather polished and put together look for a nine-year-old.
Olivia's doll, Rainbow Sparkle Unicorn-Animals, which I gave to Olivia's for her seventh birthday, also got a new outfit. Last year Rainbow got a scary witch outfit; this year she gets to be a ballerina. The idea is to keep giving Olivia a new outfit for her doll once a year until Olivia outgrows dolls, to keep Rainbow's wardrobe fresh. I wrote in full about this ballet outfit knitting project in this post if you care to hear all the details about the pattern, yarn, and process, as well as some more close view photos.
Olivia's complete birthday gift. Besides the dress, purse, brooch, doll outfit, Olivia received a crocheted elephant craft kit and a copy of The Princess Dessert Cookbook, by , both of which came from Dollarama, and a thrift shop copy of The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman. The dress fabric came from a thrift shop, the purse fabric and beads were left over from other projects, and the yarn was on sale at Len's Mill, so this was not a terribly expensive gift, though even the few dollars here and there plus the cost of the sewing pattern, thread, zipper, and postage for the package did add up alarmingly, sigh. (It's not that I grudge it, but money is extremely tight with me, and I try to reduce expenses in every way I can.)
When I wrapped Olivia's gift, I decided it would be fun to wrap Rainbow's ballet outfit separately from the other things. I even found a tiny card and envelope among my gift wrapping supplies that I could use to write Rainbow a message, which I signed, "Love, Great-Aunt Beth".
My gift arrived at Olivia's house last Wednesday, the day before Olivia and her family were to leave for a few days' vacation, so she and Rainbow would have had new outfits to pack for the trip, as well as reading material, and possibly even an handiwork activity for the car. Olivia's mother has said that Olivia told her that Rainbow was going on vacation with them, as she had a new outfit to show the world.
This morning I received this beautiful, and impressively prompt, thank you note in the mail. As I said, Olivia only received her gift last Wednesday, and last weekend was a long weekend, so for me to get this thank you note today (Tuesday), Olivia would have had to get it in the mail the day after she received the gift, on Thursday, the day she and her family were to leave for their vacation.
If you should have any trouble reading the message, it says:
Thank you aunt Beth i loveD The present ant thank you for The present for Rainbow
P.S. xoxoxoxo[heart]
I do indeed feel well and truly thanked for my efforts.
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