Dresses for Arabella

The Easter dress and a round up of all the clothes I've made since Christmas.

As some of you know, I have a little niece named Arabella and I love to sew pretty dresses for her. It has become my tradition to sew her a Christmas and Easter dress every year and sometimes other dresses just because. This week, I finished up her Easter dress and am ready to share the finished product with you!

I have also been doing a bit of sewing and knitting since Christmas and have decided to share a round up of all my finished or nearly finished projects since then. So stand by!

Easter Dress Construction!

Materials: Quilting cotton in a pretty pink floral print I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby for about 3.00 dollars a yard. I lined the dress with some pink broadcloth I picked up in 2022 at an estate sale. (I came home from that sale lugging about five garbage bags full of discontinued fabric for five dollars a bag. As you can imagine, I was one happy camper.)

I worked on this dress in fits and spurts since January, as I had to use what good weather we had to work in my garden. (There’s much to do outdoors this time of year before flower planting time.) I worked on the dress when the weather was cold and rainy.

I was so pleased with the results. I think it’s darling. And, of course, I made a matching dress for her dolly, modeled by an 18” doll I rescued from the thrift store. The Christmas before last, my husband’s sister gifted me with a set of Pleasant Company sewing patterns she’s had since she was quite young. I was overjoyed, as these patterns are no longer in print. I now have the sewing patterns for Felicity, Kirsten, Addy, Samantha, Molly and Josefina. I used the Kirsten birthday dress without the pinafore to make the dolly dress below.

The finished dress and matching doll dress!

Arabella and family will be paying me a visit in a couple of weeks and I can’t wait to see her little face light up when she catches sight of the dresses.

I’ve also been experimenting with Barbie doll wardrobe sewing for the first time. I caught sight of a few beautiful reprints of 1960s era Barbie sewing patterns the last time I was at Joann’s and decided I had to try them out. I like what I’ve done so far, but it’s going to take a lot of practice making a sharp finished product. The pieces are teensy tiny and fiddly to work with. But I’ll keep at it until I’ve got it. These dresses are also modeled on thrift store rescues! And yes, the one on the left is made from familiar fabric. (Waste not, want not. Right?)

A few weeks before Christmas, I got such a desire to make myself a red plaid dress. I kept talking about it to Jonathon and then got too stressed out with holiday preparations to follow through. But Jonathon, wonderful man that he is, encouraged me to let some other things go and make the dress. I’m glad he convinced me, because the dress turned out beautifully and will be a dress I hope to wear every Christmas season going forward!

Once again, this dress is made of simple quilting cotton I picked up at Joann’s. It wasn’t on sale at all. Horrors! But Jonathon convinced me to buy it anyway. (Have I told you how wonderful this man is?)

My most recent sewing project I also completed this week. I was perusing the pattern catalogue one day and fell in love with this beautiful blouse pattern with a retro twist. With a little tweaking, I made it work for me. I had to shorten it in the middle as the whole thing would have hit my hip line at quite an unflattering point and we can’t have that. The only issue with the pattern is that it’s designed to be a pullover blouse with a side zipper. On completing the blouse, it was just a hair tight getting it over my head, so I think the pattern should have made the neckline just a hair wider. But I can fix that in future blouses going forward. I envision sewing up many, many more of these delightful blouses!

I love the Peter Pan collar.

I’ve been knitting up a lot of socks lately and improving my skills there. My first two pairs were a little rough. I was trying to wrap my head and fingers around the various skills needed and in the process, my gauge ended up being too tight and tense. I can still wear them, but I have gone forward to knit more comfortable pairs. Below are all the socks I’ve made or almost finished. The pair that’s not finished is for Jonathon! They’re a nice wool to wear with boots on chilly days. I bought the yarn for his socks brand new, but the rest were scrounged from thrift store bins or given to me.

Last, but not least, I have begun a pullover sweater for me! Wish me luck. I’ve already made some blunders, but that’s to be expected on a first sweater. I got this baby yarn I’m using here at a thrift store! It’s not my absolutely favorite color, but I wanted to use a less expensive yarn on my first big sweater project for me and work out the kinks and problems on that rather than plunking down big bucks on a more expensive yarn.

Here are some links for the patterns I’ve used on the items above should any of you seamstresses or knitters be interested in getting them for yourselves:

Arabella’s dress: Simplicity S9245

Matching dolly dress: Kirsten's Party Clothes (I haven’t vetted this Etsy seller, but it might be worth a shot to download a digital pattern since it’s listed at only .66)

Barbie clothes: Barbie’s wardrobe, Barbie’s wardrobe 2

My dress: I used the sleeves from this pattern and the bodice and skirt from this one.

Blouse pattern: Little Retro Blouse

Sock pattern: Vanilla Sock Pattern on DPNs This gal also has a YouTube tutorial which was really helpful as a first time sock knitter.

Sweater pattern: Fineline Sweater

I don’t know how I’ll fit it much sewing in the next few months because gardening season is hurtling down the runway directly at me, but I have a new nephew and either a great niece or nephew due this summer. So, I’ll want to make some cute little outfits for them hectic schedule or not. But that’s what I’ve got for now.

What have you been making, ladies?

That’s all for now. Until next time, folks…

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