Birthday Report and Holiday Dress Update!

Didn’t start off great, but when I arrived at my friend Jennifer’s for a play date, she had made me BROWNIES (which I had for breakfast.  I sure needed them after hydroplaning and being on the receiving end of a sloppy now slide from a truck onto my windshield.)

They were the best brownies I have ever had in my life.  Ever. In my life.

The recipe is here.

Ells didn’t nap, even while I was at the salon covering my greys…I’m sure there are only the 4 I saw, but still…

I came home to a pile of presents and gorgeous flowers!  We all went (inlaws too) to eat Ethiopian food at The Blue Nile in Ferndale and it was magnificent.  I love that my children eat exotic, spicy, vegetarian food.  Even the non-veg kids ate only vegetarian food.  It was fantastic!

I finished my niece’s holiday dress.  Ella is wearing it above, in the photo with my flowers.  She wasn’t really in the mood to model yesterday, so I didn’t get a lot of great shots.  I’ll try again tomorrow when she’s in a better mood, before I ship it off to Memphis.

I used my Party Dress pattern along with the Teatime Pinafore, with some modifications.  (You may remember, I made this for Ella’s Birthday, too, in a beautiful Magenta color.)

I used a simple rolled hem on the sparkly organza pinafore :

And trimmed it with ribbons and bows:

I used our great aunt’s buttons on the front of the dress and the back of the pinafore:

I made a puff sleeve and puffed hem out of cotton batiste:

Of course I finished the inside so that Sophia’s skin is caressed with super-soft fabric, and no annoying threads or scratchies!

Waistline – flat-fell seams

Shoulder – turned and stitched seams:

Skirt – French seams:

Ella didn’t want to take it off….but hers is next.

I’m working on a tutorial to share with all of you who commented on my flickr photostream about the Furrowed Cuff on Ella’s holiday dress.  I’ll have instructions and a photo follow-along tutorial for this technique tomorrow!