Finding Dory~Another Fun Disney Dress

image 1 close finished p

My step-by-step tutorial for this dress is posted at Brother’s Stitching Sewcial blog. Please take a look and leave a comment . I’d really appreciate your feedback.

 

It seems like forever since there has been a new post here, but My! Oh! My! have I been busy!  Highlights include time in NC with family, a week at home with 2 younger grands, including hurricane Vivian Rose (good news,  we have finally recovered. Whew!), several days of sewing with the two older grands and so much more.   It’s been a wonderful summer.

But I’m back in the saddle now and have a really fun little project to share with you.  I do believe this sweet child’s dress would qualify for the “Modern Projects for Old Fashioned Nanas” category.  Don’t you?

It started with this cute pattern

image-2-Dory-patt

and the Finding Dory machine embroidery designs at iBroidery.com.  The fabrics are a solid soft aqua Swiss cotton pique’ and a blue Disney Finding Dory quilting cotton.

This flexible curve ruler was used to draw the “waves” on the front panel.

image 5 close wave lines drawn Frxx

 

By leaving the curve intact after the first wave was drawn, the following curves were identical.  What a useful tool this is.

Like many of you readers, I tend to incorporate some of my favorite techniques in every project possible.  The mostly machine made yo-yo, detailed in the Stitching Sewcial blog, is one I include again and again.  My  granddaughter has used the Clover yo-yo makers for those in her quilts.  But even the largest Clover maker was not large enough for the sun on the bodice of this frock.  So I resorted to using one of my Blue Willow bowls for a template.

image 16 close yo-yo materials

 

This gave me a jumbo yo-yo sun.

 

image 23 close yo-yo complete

 

The finished yo-yo was edged with an unusual trim that I always liked but sometimes wondered why I had purchased it years ago.  How could I have known that I would need rays for my yo-yo sun?  But isn’t it perfect for the sun rays? A big orange button covers the center hole, making a fairly convincing sun, at least if you are the little girl wearing the dress.

 

front yoke

 

For those who have no access to the Finding Dory designs at ibroidery.com, other sealife designs could be used.  I just think this any little girl would like this cool, summer dress. What do you think?

This is one of a few projects with which I am generally pleased.  Usually, after finishing I wish I had done several things differently.  It’s the old “woulda coulda shoulda” syndrome.  Do you ever do that?

NANA FUN

Seven year old Alastair just returned from 3 weeks at a fabulous  camp.   This is the very camp where my dear husband and I met as waterfront counselors many years ago.  Magical as it was when we were there so many years ago, it is even better now.  Activities include swimming, fishing, water skiing, sailing, and canoeing on beautiful Center Lake.  Every sport from tennis to soccer is on the agenda, along with arts and crafts, cooking and much, much more.

 

waterfront no name

 

 

What an incredible experience it was for him! We all were a little worried that 3 weeks was too long for such a young camper.  But he was eager to go and is already signed up for the 4 week session next summer, though he would prefer the entire 7 weeks offered!

He looks like a happy camper to me.

He looks like a happy camper to me.

His mother, our Rebecca, shared Alastair’s only reservation about his time at camp:

Well, I guess I didn’t always have a good time. Why not? After the first few days I didn’t like Tribe time. I had to hide in my cabin. Why? Well, it was something that kept happening that made me really uncomfortable. I didn’t know what to do about it. So I just hid in my bunk and pretended I wasn’t there. See, these girls who were like 10, 11, and 12, they would come looking for me and tell me I was soooooo cuuuuuute and that they wanted to do stuff with me, like go for walks and stuff, and I just didn’t know who they were or why they wanted to walk with me, and they came EVERY single day. 
I asked if the other boys had this same problem. No. None. Well, that’s not true! Matt! Matt had it way, way worse. How so? Well, see, Matt is an older boy and all the girls liked him, and they never left him alone!  He was always hounded by them. I felt real bad for Matt. But I don’t know, he might have liked it a little bit.
Of course,  we expect there will come a summer when Alastair,  like Matt, might like that attention a little bit.  But not now, thank you very much.

 

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