What Are We Up to Now?

Can you believe that September is half over? Where has the year gone?

Right now I am trying to work on the Sewing for Kids/Babies contest on Pattern Review. It's not going the way I planned. I had origially planned to make Little Asian Doll from Sew Beautiful Magazine. But it turned out I didn't have quite what I needed in my stash to do it justice, and a trip (60 miles one way) to the fabric store was not possible right now so I had to come up with a Plan B.

So I decided to work on a couple of other things I've had my eye on for a while. First up is Children's Corner Kinsey:

I'm making view A, the yellow dress with the floral collar, with the sleeves from view B, the pink dress. I'm using a cute 30's reproduction cotton. I love the colors: peach with red and green accents, while the Princess loves the print: kittens. The collar and cuffs will be white pique, and it wil be piped in green microcheck. Here's a sneak peak:

I was hoping this dress would make up quickly, but I spent most of the afternoon yesterday working on the collar. Can I just say I was off my sewing game? I hope it goes a little more smoothly today.

I really wanted to make a smocked dress for the contest, too. After scouring my pattern and fabric stash, I decided on Annika, from Maja's Heirloom Treasures:

The dress will be made out of a red cotton butterfly print and the insert will be smocked with, what else, butterflies! The insert and collar will be white, piped with blue microcheck. I think it will be really cute when it's all done. I've already started the insert (I'll spare you the pleater disaster story that goes with it!) and I'm just hoping I can get both dresses done in time to enter them in the contest. But if not, they will both qualify for the Pattern from Stash contest that runs through October.

Stay tuned for progress updates.