My Little Turkey

As my business has grown over the last year, I've felt myself putting projects for family & friends on the back burner so I can get a little more work done. This was heartbreaking for me. The point of running my own business was so that I would be at home with Isabelle (and future kids), and give more to those I love. So each weekend I "try" to set aside all work, and only do projects for those I love. It's not a perfect system, and this weekend I slipped. A lot of the photographers I had orders from HAD to have items this coming week, that meant I HAD to work overtime and then some. With all that said, I was bound and determined to create a dress for Isabelle for Thanksgiving. My original hope had been to sew 2 ties that matched for her cousins; had great visions of the family photos. Sorry Brycen and Bailey, the ties are probably not going to get done in the next 48 hours. I'm sure they'll forgive me.. Well after some Wii and pumpkin pie..

The pattern I used was Olive Ann Designs : Jump-N . Purchased it at one of my favorite local fabric stores, Material Girls over in South Jordan.

And I'm still on my corduroy kick; using a heavy wide wale green cord and small wale chocolate brown w/ matching green polka dot .

I made some changes, and honestly now that I'm done I will make more changes to the next one. I am not a flamingo fan, so that appliqué got axed. Also..

* Isa is skin & bones, so her body measurements put her at size 1. However, I didn't take into consideration that she has my head. Big heads means big ideas! It is super hard to get it over her head and tears usually erupt. For the next dress I will either push the sleeves out more or increase the width of the neck.

* It is supposed to be reversible, but honestly with 2 cords it makes it very bulky. With the next one I'd either use only 1 heavy fabric or not intend to make it reversible.

* Your bobbin thread color is important!! For this reason I will probably not use the polka dot side as wearable option. The bobbin thread color is distracting to me though I'm sure Isa is unaware :o)

* I added a machine embroidered turkey on the bottom for a little added holiday decoration. The original had that flamingo.. I bought the embroidery pattern at SWAK Embroidery

If I had more time to spend on the dress I think I'd be slightly happier with it. It really only should have took around 2 hours to sew, but with a toddler yelling "Go Diego, Go!" and deadlines looming over my shoulder.. I said this Turkey is done, stick a fork in it!