Photos, I hope.

Let me preface this post with the fact that I used my camera phone to take these and I am no photographer to begin with.

This is the skirt that I made using the book that I bought. I took my own measurements and drafted the pattern for a simple A-line skirt. I think it came out pretty nice for a first try. I put elastic in the waist for my first try because I am not that great at putting in zippers and I didn't have one on hand anyway.

This is detail of the patch pocket that I made. It has jumbo rick rack around it and I used my embroidery sewing machine to make a heart with a frame around it.

I finished the whole thing off with a decorative stitch around the hem. Not bad for a first try.

Another thing that I have been experimenting with is different embellishments for children's clothing.

Here is the detail on the front of a dress that I am working on. The butterfly is embroidered on by machine. The stems and leaves I embroidered on by hand. The flowers are yo-yo's that I made by hand and sewed on. In the middle of the flowers I sewed various decorative buttons to coordinate with the colors of the yo- yo's.

In the past when I was making clothing for little children I always stayed with classic match-ups when choosing colors. I am not saying that it wasn't a good choice but it was certainly a safe choice. Lately I have been looking at a lot of magazines and online store-fronts to see what is the current styles for childrens clothing. Some of the color combinations are definitely not what I would have chosen but I find that they are cute together.

So, in the spirit of learning new things I have been stepping out of my usual choices and mixing it up a bit. This little set is one of my successes. It is too bad the photography is not that great.

Finally, this little dress is something that I finished up today. I got a kick out of the ladybugs on the bright pink print. I wasn't sure about pairing it up with that stripe but I have to say they are nice. The little ruffle at the bottom brings it all together.