trial-dress

I hate clothes shopping with a passion - thus I have pretty much not bought Leona any clothes so far (well, that and because she's gotten so many gifted clothes as well as hand-me-downs...yes, we're blessed like that).

In any event, due to this passion, I decided I'd make Leona a dress for the glamour shot photo-shoot as well as the make-up dinner, using this tutorial (as its sooooo simple, I figure it's perfect for my starter sewing skills).

A while back I had bought a piece of hakka-floral patterned fabric, and figured it'd be perfect to use as a trial run, to see what kind of adjustments I'd want to make to the real deal.

So yesterday I went for a stroll around town to find a 'button store' - which also would sell thread, elastic...and bias tape (yay! I haven't been wanting to make my own quite yet).

[Sideline: It was at the tail-end of this walk, as I was heading to grandma's for dinner, that I did the walk-n-breastfeeding down the street - Leona in a carrier on my front, a square piece of cloth diaper insert that I use as milk-spill cloth over her head and my shoulder. Though I try to have quiet focused me-n-her time during Leona's meals, I still just felt so awesome - like I was some kind of breastfeeding rebel. It's something I've started to do regularly now that she doesn't leak as much milk - to just breastfeed wherever I am, whether it be in restaurants, at health centers, or wherever I may be. Not that people usually can guess what we're up to if she's in the sling, and in the carrier people thought she was sleeping, but still. Cool, I say.]

Back to the trial-dress. Last night after Leona fell asleep I started cutting and ironing and sewing, and today finished it off right before heading over to grandma's for dinner.

[Another sideline: I get to go ...aka am expected to go...will be questions 'why?' if I call and say I'm not going that day... to grandma's for dinner every single day - just a 3-5 min walk from here, and always about 7 different dishes and 2 different soups. Yum!]

The dress was a big hit with Leona's third-grand-auntie (her and Leona's third-grand-uncle live with her great-grandma), third-great-grand-uncle (who comes for dinner every single day as well), and great-grandma...though to be honest pretty much her in anything is a hit because she's the hit :P

Tomorrow I'll do a proper photo-shoot, but got off a few not-so-stellar snapshots before she headed for her bath, dinner, and sleep (oh, sleep! That warrants another post later, there's some exciting developments in that department):

[Propped her up to try and get a good view of the dress~~Cropped away her bare bum - not that it's not super cute too of course ;P]

[Sat her more up on her own and as I reached for the camera she face-planted~~ As we don't sit her up much unless she's propped in our arms or lap she's not a solo stable sitter yet...we're waiting for her to get to there on her own, because then she will be more mobile and free...not face-planting and getting frustrated XD]

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