Saturday, December 4, 2010

Whirling and twirling.....

For her kindergarten Christmas concert, the wee girl's costume was "a nice dress". It was one of the must-do projects I took to Sewjourn a few weeks ago.

I used the Tulip Dress bodice and drafted a simple half-circle skirt for it. Then I added a full-circle flared band at the hemline.

I forgot to add seam allowances, so the skirt waist was larger than bodice... which was cleverly disguised in an "I meant to do that" gathered-under-a-belt-tie design detail.

There is no such thing as a mistake... just another opportunity for a design feature.... I think this one really makes the dress!

The dress has done much twirling and whirling since it was worn (back-to-front*) at the concert.
*She was dressed by one of the teachers, apparently....?

Yesterday, she wore it right-way-round.....

..and around.... and around...

Amid the madness of moving house and business and school orientations and kinder concerts and broken-down cars (and broken-down air-conditioners and hot-water-services...) ...and granny-flat-building projects and scary medical investigations and book edits and re-shoots (between storm clouds)..... I've been scheduling more workshops for next year!

There's definitely going to be a bit of circle-skirt action going on in next year's workshop schedule, some pattern-making and some pattern-free clothing and I think a bit of pattern-variation (like this one) for garments.
I'm looking forward to teaching next year.... Just bear with me until I have time to upload the information to the website.
I may need to stop for a breather first.....

***
BTW - Lara has been on a Tulip Dress ROLL, lately! Check out her gorgeous little Tulips here....and here...

12 comments:

Kate said...

It looks gorgeous!
I think you should make an animation thingy out of it. One of these things: http://picasion.com/
Have a happy and restful weekend. X

Fer said...

Every girl has to have a twirly skirt, and this one is just gorgeous! And you're right, most things are fixable with a bit of ingenuity!

Gay McDonell said...

I'm giddy

Andi said...

That dress looks perfect!!
So very sweet.
Glad it's being appropriately loved!
Andi x

Sally said...

Beautiful beautiful dress!

willywagtail said...

Gorgeous girl.
Twirl, twirl, twirl.

Katherine said...

Twirly, whirly wonderful! I love happy accidents such as this, that make a design extra special.

Whew. By the sounds of it, you must feel like you've been in a bit of a twirly-whirly world with all that you're experiencing. Wow. Hope all smooths out, Nikki and you don't run yourself ragged.
Take care!

**Anne** said...

I love that little dress. I remember whirling and swirling in my dresses when when I was little. Only problem was our dresses had netting under the skirt to puff them out, and boy was it scratchy. My sister and I would accidently on purpose put a big rip in the netting so my mum would eventually cut it out.
Enjoy your weekend,
Anne

Jodie said...

I'm looking forward to that class list Nikki, I think I might need to come along to some of those garment ones...

A Peppermint Penguin said...

The dress is fab - clearly the teacher is a bit fashion challenged and thought bows go in the front...

Did I miss a few bits somewhere along the way - you have/are moved house as well as office? When did that happen! And granny flats? For grannies? Good grief woman. You need locked up - it's the only way you'll sit down.

And yet somehow you make it all work!

Cheers,
AJ

Chrys said...

The dress was lovely...I don't recall who was in charge of dressing her group at the concert, with 30 kids to dress in a short space of time etc, it was VERY hectic back stage. To be honest though, I bet no one else noticed, the wee girl certainly didn't as I am SURE she would have pointed it out to whoever dressed her!
But I appologise on behalf of all of us 'fashion challenged' teachers who were under the pump to get things going. LOL. Give the wee girl hugs from me...gonna miss her next year!

Elizabeth said...

What a beautifuyl dress - the wee girl is so lucky. My cousind and I used to dress-up in her Mum's fifties going-out dresses, all we would do was twirl. You should definitely put up a pattern for this one. Maybe make a looong twirly dress too so she can play grown-up twirlers?