Category Archives: dresses for girls

Sewed, Sealed, and Delivered

Once again, I sewed dresses for the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. My husband, daughter, and I dropped the finished shoeboxes off yesterday afternoon. Phew, that’s done until January, when I’ll start again for the 2023 season. Now to focus on gifts closer to home. Btw, through the years I think practically all of my boxes have gone to a country on the African continent.

My goal was to make two dresses every month, January through October, which was easy enough to do. Towards the end of the year I also made some little stuffies to put in the dress pockets. I think I will do that for each dress next year. And, maybe make scrunchies, too. I have sooo much fabric and hand made items are special. At least, I think so. If you have any other ideas I’d love to hear them.

I didn’t change the dress pattern at all. I used different fabrics from those used in 2021so that made it fun. I am a fabric junkie–I love it! Also, each dress uses four different fabrics: main dress fabric, pocket, ties, and bias binding. Back when (not sure how many years ago that was) I started sewing these dresses I wrote a tutorial in case anyone was interested. It’s on my website here. Ha ha! I even used my own tutorial in January of this year after taking a couple of months off of sewing.

Here are the little bunny treasures to be found in the pockets. Except for the lemon bear; she was a bit too tall for the pocket.

I love lemon bear, but she was so fiddly to make. I don’t think I could get enough of them made without going batty. She looks innocent enough, but nope, she’s a bit fussy. I had to rip out the stitching where her legs attach to her body three times before they looked nice. At the last minute I found a pair of Kish Chrysalis shorts that fit her and sent those along. She has a polymer clay cupcake in her purse.😋 She is sweet though, isn’t she?

As we put the shoeboxes together we made a mess of the dining room. The fuzzy plush bears were added to the boxes that didn’t have one of the hand made bunnies.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my shoeboxes for 2022. I pray that they find their way into the little arms of a little girl that they would be perfect for.

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate. If not, wishing you a beautiful week!

Thank you for visiting with me today. I appreciate you so much! Sending hugs🤗op

My Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes Have Been Dropped Off

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Hello to you! I hope you are enjoying this late autumn, or spring, weekend. We had a pretty nice day today–some sunshine and crisp temps.

This week/weekend is the collection week for the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. My daughter and I assembled them on Wednesday and then dropped them off that evening at a nearby church. So, they are done!

I started sewing the dresses for the shoeboxes in June. Some of you may remember that I have been getting my fabric from a very nice woman who bought out a friend’s quilt shop in Texas. Twice a year she has been having fabric sales at her home. This year I needed fabric if I was to continue. My doll fabric is all 1/2 yard cuts and the main dress pieces take 1 yard cuts. My post from a past visit is here.

I love sewing these dresses, but they are lots of work. I have no idea if my dresses are fitting the girls and if the dresses are even needed and liked. I mean, who knows, right? We all have different tastes. I thought I’d pray about it and see if I got some guidance. That very day I heard from Margaret telling me the date of her next fabric sale! Yep, that very day! I got the message loud and clear!

I left her house with a garbage bag so heavy that I could barely carry it… and another smaller grocery bag. She was so kind to also let me pick through her scraps and offered me many giveaways–silk ribbon, cotton threads, machine needles, mother-of-pearl buttons, etc. Also, my daughter and I visited her this fall–she said this was the last sale. She sold me fabric for $1 a yard this time! I bought enough for another two years, I think.

This year I got 20 dresses completed! Look at them all! Do you have a favorite?

As for the rest of the items for the boxes we added crayons, a pen, mechanical pencil, paper pads, coloring pages, stickers, toothbrush, washcloth, bar soap, hair clip and ponytail band in a little purse, a teddy bear, and the dress I made. Here are the teddy bears waiting to be packed away in the shoeboxes.

The dresses fold up nice and neat and sit on the top of each box. In case you are interested, I made a tutorial for these dresses years ago. I actually used my own tutorial this year as a refresher. I hadn’t made them in a couple of years… The tutorial is here, or under the tutorial tab at the top of this page.

If you have a favorite dress, I’d love to know… just for fun.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend! Hugs to you all! 🤗❤️

This and That

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Hello to you all, my friends. How are you? I’m doing great, staying busy.

Today I spent the day doing something I’ve been wanting to do, but yet, kept putting off because I couldn’t decide on colors. What I did today was dye yarn, and I decided to simply start and let the colors speak for themselves, which they seemed to do just fine. I dyed 5 skeins and was so into what I was doing that I forgot to take pictures.

I’ve also been saving avocado pits for dyeing, so I also dyed a cotton tank. It ended up being the palest shade of mauve-y rose. I think it will make a nice neutral layering piece. Once again, I forgot to take photos, sorry. I will share later, I promise.

Last weekend my husband and I brought our daughter back to school. Gosh, it feels like weeks have already gone by since she’s been home, not a week. How does that happen? Anyway, she is all moved in and has even started classes. Her apartment is very nice this year. The cluster of 3-story buildings are only about 6 years old. Each apartment has a washer/dryer, two bathrooms, high ceilings, nice kitchen and living room. She loves it, however, she is trying to adjust to the noise. She is on the first floor and her window has gotten banged on early in the morning and she hears people outside on the sidewalk. I suggested ear plugs. 🙂

Here is a photo of her cute bed. She made the two pillows in the front, and the braided garland and tassel garland hanging on the wall. The doily on the front pillow was crocheted by her great great grandmother and the rosebud cross stitch picture is by me. She brought another rosebud which wasn’t hung at the time this photo was taken. I think it’s really nice how she has things at school made by her family.

I also wanted to make something for my daughter as she started school this year. This was my first pair of socks made with self striping yarn. Even though I started each sock with yarn from the center of the skein the stripes are reversed. Live and learn! Luckily, the quirkiness of the pair is being embraced. The yarn is Knit Picks Felici sock in the Golden Hour colorway.

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One evening while knitting these socks, as the golden hour was happening the sky actually looked golden and seemed to be lit from within. It was magical.

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Good news! I finished all of the dresses for my 2018 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. There are 23 in all. I’m a bit burned out, so this will be the extent of dress sewing for a little bit. However, I love looking at my little dress shop when I am working in my sewing room. They’ll be here until mid November.

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This past week I started an ensemble for Ann Estelle. The fabric is a teeny tiny Japanese ballerina print. Isn’t it adorable? I am knitting a lilac mohair cardigan to accompany the dress and possibly a pearl headband. After being away from doll sewing for about 6 months it is good to be back. I’ve missed it.

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