What's Next?

I've been thinking really hard about my sewing queue.  My needs and wants for myself are pretty straightforward.  I need fall and winter tops and perhaps a dress or skirt.  I want to make jeans, bras and panties.  The wants will probably come before the needs for the odd reason that I want to make sure that I retain all the sewing information I got during ASG conference before I forget it all!  Plus, I have the jeans muslin all prepared which saves some time and planning.  I will need some bras soon, so I guess putting them higher in the queue isn't a bad thing.

Some other sewing that I ought to do is for the youngest dd.  She needs fall and winter dresses and I have 3 pieces of fabric that need to be sewn for her.  First, this Dalmatian smocking insert is ready to go (I won't discuss how long that's been ready!).  This will make a great transition type dress from the hot to the cooler days.  I've already posted pics of this, but here's one again:

 
Next, I have this really lovely piece of pink wool that I bought during last winter:

It was a kit type thing from http://www.sewitup.com/.    I didn't feel like buying another pattern, so I'll use McCall 9534 which is OOP.  The fabric is just wonderful feeling!I have some Bemburg lining for the inside so it will be soft against dd's skin!  This should carry her through the winter.

And finally, a piece of corduroy for a Christmas dress.  This one bothers me because I can't decide how I'd like it to be made.  It has holly embroidered on it although it almost looks like a string of Christmas tree lights from this picture!  At first, I'd thought about smocking an insert for it, but since the corduroy is white I don't want to use a white insert.  So I think I'll make it easy on myself and just aim for a simple dress using the same McCall 9534 as for the pink wool one!  It will look different with some green ribbon and red highlights which I can play with depending on what I find at the store.

Quite a number of years ago now, I used this same McCall pattern to make my oldest dd a dress.  It has got to be the best multi-purpose dress I ever made!  I used red polar fleece and its first purpose was for her to be a strawberry for Halloween.  I used some long straight stitches on the front of the dress itself in a gold silk ribbon, just like those markings on the outside of strawberries!  I attached some cheap, slippery, red lining fabric the entire length of the underarm so that when she held out her arms, it made the entire dress strawberry shaped!  Some fabric paint for the gold markings on that carried on the markings appropriately.  Then, to top it off, I made a red polar fleece hat with the green strawberry 'cap' on top.  The silk ribbon was quick and easy to take out and since I had basted the underarm 'strawberry' on, that was quick to remove so she had a plain red winter dress!

The next year, she wanted to be a cardinal.  Out came that red dress and I stitched giant red feathers onto it.  Again, quick and easy to remove.  Some red facepaint applied in a feathery fashion and a little yellow beak completed that look. 

Wish I had some pictures to show you!  I was thinking about when I had used that McCall pattern and then I remembered that it was for this multi-purpose dress so long ago!