The wedding dress of the year... cut down to size (3T)

You are probably now shaking your head in wonder that any 3 year could be so over-indulged. I have to tell you, I can see where you're coming from but I can justify my insanity by telling you about her most-wanted list, every item on which has been refused by me/her daddy on the various grounds of:

cost (Lelli Kellys)
parental idleness (kitten(s), puppy, rabbits)
lack of space (4 horses)
lack of age (a rainbow car, ballet lessons, a DS)
health and safety (old yogurt, cilit bang (for the benefit of international readers: a hard-core cleaning agent), candles, turning the hot tap on and off)
all of the above (mobile phone)

Some of these things she will get when she has her own money. Others she will get when she has her own house, though I hope she's not holding her breath for the 4 horses. Now I'm not losing any sleep over the rainbow car decision but I do sometimes have pangs over refusing the Lelli Kellys - other little girls in her class have them and, heaven knows, I'd have stepped over my mother to get a pair when I was three. But £50 for a pair of shoes she can't even wear to school? No way!



So when she watched, with open mouth, the Royal Wedding last week and announced that Kate Middleton's dress is much nicer than any of the dresses that mummy had made for her, I decided to really indulge her. It's a dressing up dress, complete with stretch lace overlay, 3/4 sleees, small train and long veil. It isn't quite full-length - something that has not gone unnoticed by Laura! - so she can even scoot in it.

I say it's a dressing up dress because that's what it's meant to be. It's actually a 'going everywhere except nursery and mass' dress. We got a fair amount of attention in Ikea until I shoved her into the Smaland playzone so her brother could get the funny looks instead of me. I understand the nice childcare assistants had a lovely time playing with the veil...

And even I had to laugh when she accessorized it with raincoat and umbrella for going to the library. But we have to pick our battles in this life and you know what?, I bet the Duchess of Cambridge would love to do her shopping in her wedding dress, so I'm going to continue to let my 3-year old mini-Duchess do just that!

Notes for other over-indulgent mummies - I hacked the Farbenmix Olivia pattern for the dress body and sleeves. The train is just a pleated length of satin. The collar is a length of lace sewn onto the neckline. Or you could just buy one from my Etsy shop!

Get thee hence, puckering!

This picture might not look like much to you, but it's been the source of serious pleasure to me! It's a picture of cotton interlock finished with rib-knit binding. And not a pucker, stretch or ripple to be seen.

I posted my plea for help on the Ottobre Yahoo! group. And as well as some very sweet comments on the puckersome hoody, I got some excellent advice from Margaret (aka Once and Future Stash Empress). (Side note: If you want to improve your sewing, this Yahoo group is awesome. The members are uniformly polite, friendly and knowledgable. They will pour their sewing expertise over you - you just can't help but get better! And the Ottobre magazines have some of the best sewing patterns around - they're definitely worth the extra step of tracing them.)

But to return to the rippled seams: if you have sufferered from horizontal seam stretching on knits in the past and want to know how to de-pucker, Margaret recommends that you:-

1. reduce your presser foot pressure;

2. increase your stitch length;

3. (for overlockers) reduce the differential feed.

She did so in a beautifully lucid post, which explained exactly why these three steps would work. And they did! I had a happy half-hour this evening playing around with some interlock scraps and making little samples, to which I have attached notes setting out their stitch length, width, presser foot pressure and (for the serged sample) differential feed.

So all that remains is for me to retrieve the hoody and re-do the ribbing. Oh, and come up with another name for the boys' clothes collection. It turns out that 'Les Pets' on the label will set French speakers guffawing because "pets" means - well, I'd rather not say in polite company but here's a clue: it's an anagram of RAFTS. Go figure.

Addendum: Nicole from Dots & Stripes has left a comment on the Hoody post, advising that she reduces the presser foot pressure when she does horizontal seams on knits. And if you check out her blog, you can see that it really does work!