I was loving the way Samantha’s dress was coming together…and I still do love it, but I have a problem…
This is a picture I took to show Cindy what I was working on today…you can see the color of the lavender ribbon the best in it.
Here is another picture I took. I left the blue background up because I need to take better pictures of my slips before I put them on Etsy.
I’m planning to add a pleated skirt onto the dropped waist bodice…and was going to use the 1 1/2″ lavender ribbon as a sash at the seam, just resting on her hips…so can anyone guess what the problem is?
I’m going to think on this one…here’s a hint…poor planning on my part…
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Hm, I’m guessing you didn’t leave enough room for the sash! And the ribbon is wide enough that you probably don’t want to squeeze the “bows” too much closer together, or it’ll look funny. I suppose you could just remove the bottom “bow”, but then that would leave a wider gap between the sash and the next one up, and look kind of unbalanced. I suppose you could add a band of fabric at the bottom of the bodice, where the sash will go, but that might “drop” the waist a little too low.
Well, good luck with this one, Jeanne! But, knowing you, you will figure it out, I am quite confident of that!
I agree with Charlotte on the problem. While I think about that, I want to mention 3 things:
the ribbon looks less iridescent than it did yesterday and looks even more appropriate; I’ve seen that pattern used before and thought the sleeves looked a little too large — these sleeves have a better proportion; I really like the ribbon-button design.
I don’t know if it will work, but with the pleated skirt it might. Can you fasten the sash at the sides of the white section, under the lace? Can you finish the bottom of the white insert with more lace.
At least you have light again. That helps a lot.
Not sure about a problem… when the skirt is attached the bottom bow will just meet it which seems fine to me. Marilyn’s thoughts to fasten the ash at the edge of the white inset would work wouldn’t it? Absolutely love the button ribbon treatment!
Humm. I think I would have to see a full length picture to comment about changes. It might work by adding an extension to the top and then the sash, but not sure how it would look without seeing knees. 🙂 Since dresses were longer then, hopefully that would work. I think what has been done so far looks wonderful.
I was busy as a bee trying to finish my dress for the Sewalong. I’ve been doing the Summer Sewalong for quite a few years now and it is fun. Wren Feathers aka Jen Wren puts out a pattern every week and then everyone makes the pattern and posts a photo of what they made. I really tried, but still have the skirt to sew on and then I’ll be done. Yay.
Anyway, I was unable to answer yesterday about how to obtain one of the latest Ruby Red Fashion Friends dolls. There are several ways, and I think Sally mentioned about it. There are several RRFF connections. One in the U.S. and another in China. RRFF Toys is the China one and that is where new special edition dolls come up for U.S. purchase. On Facebook, RRFF Global or Instagram usually has a sneak preview of the latest. Then, you can go to RRFF Toys (Just Google) and order the doll. Although, you have to be pretty quick or they are sold out. 🙁 Then, for some of the U.S. editions, individual dealers carry the dolls. Happily.com, Samantha’s Dolls, and others carry them. I purchased the U.S. 4th of July doll from a Facebook moderator who is also a dealer and is able to get an allotment of dolls. I know that Happily.com also has them or did. I’m sure there are other ways to purchase, but this is how I’ve been getting my dolls. Then, there are the European/Russian doll sellers with editions only available there. Many of the dealers will ship to the U.S. For the U.S., RRFF Toys is now sending the dolls directly to the consumer rather than first to the dealer who then had to ship out to their clients. The dealer here you use, collects the money and sends the order to Toys which is then sent directly to you from China. Saves on shipping immensely. Hope this isn’t too confusing. Maybe someone else can chime in with more information.
I just clicked back to the first photo, and I can really picture Samantha’s dress with a longer drop for the sash and then a cute pleated skirt. Wonder what Jeanne has in mind? 🙂
I just received an update from Ruby Red Fashion Friends, and they have Joy available on their site under Special Editions. If anyone is interested.
I have looked at Liberty Joy, and her hair bugs me! 😂 It looks like just little clumps of waves. I suppose it could be combed out and look a little more natural….I do like her eye color, and I LOVE her outfit! However, lately I had been kind of looking at Maya, so I think I may go that direction. (And then we’ll see if another special edition comes out that I Need! LOL)
Did you run out of ribbon? I’ve used ribbon from a cardboard reel. After starting a project, I discovered the center core was much bigger than I thought. The last length of ribbon was too short to finish my project as planned. Could you make the sash using the dress fabric?
I’m answering this before I read anyone else’s comment. I like the way you have embellished the insert but is the placing of the sash your dilemma? Seems it is. If so, looks to me like you just need to remove the ribbon closest to the waistline and then everything should be fine. It might create a “gap” but I have done dresses where I embellished the top half of the bodice and left a gap before the waist treatment and it looked fine but it was the plan. If it seems awkward you could move the second ribbon down some. To me everything is visual so it would depend on how I felt when I looked at it. If it felt strange I would have to do something else. I love wide sashes on little girl’s dresses so there is no question any decision has to be made to include the sash. Whatever you decide, this is going to be one sweet little dress.
After searching and asking about the RRFF Liberty Joy doll yesterday, thanks Sally for your assistance, at the end of the day yesterday I got the message from Happily Every After showing the doll. I must be at the bottom of their list for sending info. That is one beautiful doll. Since I really can’t order another doll right now, I think I might make a similar dress for the RRFFs I have. I’ve got lots of patriotic fabric. I especially love the hair though but I refuse to disassemble any of my current RRFF’s wigs so I guess I’ll live with their current hairdos.
We had another storm go through last evening. I keep praying they will stop so they can spray for mosquitos. Usually our mosquitos only come out in the evening but these we’re dealing with at the moment are out all day. You just about have to wear “Off” to walk outside at all. But the strange thing this year is that our temps are still in the low to mid 80s most days and the humidity is decent. It probably won’t continue but it will be nice while it lasts.
Like your idea about a R/W/B dress for your current kids. I wasn’t going to order Joy, but then I had a change of heart because I liked her hair, and she’s a bit different than Sara. We’ll see how they look together whenever she arrives.
Hope your mosquitos are dispersed with quickly. Around here, we have an agency that takes calls and comes out to see if they can find the source. Our neighbor called and when they came out, they said that all of the neighbors in the area would have to allow their oak trees to be sprayed as they are hatching in the oak tree hollows. It is a free service. Good luck with that. Many here don’t want any chemicals sprayed that is if you could even come close to spraying all of the oaks. They are everywhere. We don’t have them, but neighbors do. We are very careful to close the doors quickly and fortunately, we’ve only had a few inside.
And her name is Joy. You were destined to order her. She is lovely. As for mosquitos the problem is that with all the rain the mowing all over town has slowed especially in vacant lots and the mosquitos just love hiding out and breeding in the long grass and the water that is below since we’ve had so much rain nothing is being absorbed. The Mayor says they are starting to spray but we got another big storm today. I try to get in the house quickly but my dog often has other ideas. I asked if you were a Language Arts teacher because you’re not afraid of words. You use them cleverly. I love words and writing so I notice things like that.
Missed a few posts as health got in the way again. Oh the fun of aging….aren’t these suppose to be my “golden years?”
Ruby Red Fashion…I ordered mine from Happily.com and they are a pleasure to work with and often have sales but no free shipping. The price was good and I caught her on sale. I purchased the Holiday Bella she is limited, I think. Very sweet with black hair and pink streaks. I tossed between Rory (boy) and Bailey.
I agree with the others as the first think that I saw after reading the post that the waist is too close to the where the skirt and ribbon will go. Tons of work but you could move the 2nd one up and put the 3rd one up the spacing with have to be spot on. Which would leave enough room for the skirt and ribbon. Very cute so far. First time I saw that pattern.
Mosquitos have been here for weeks and they are horrid. I don’t remember them being this bad since I moved to Cape May. You can’t walk out the door without a dozen landing on you. A they love me! They don’t spray here on if they see a place where they can live and make babies. I miss the mosquitos trucks that use to come and spray the town every week. I loved the smell of the spray. We are bombarded with mosquitos and more tourist than I’ve even seen here. They said last weekend there were at least 60,000 each day. I only venture outside from May until September if I have too and with that I am out of the house at 7 and back by 10. Avoid the bugs and the tourists lines.
Dear Jeanne, I am guessing it’s something about space for the waist. This is from the non-sewer, of course (laugh).
I know that whatever it is you will work it out and the dress will be lovely.
Jeanne, were you putting the sash bow at the front or the back? If the bow goes to the back then if you place the sash so that the top only just covers the seam that might work. Anyway I am sure you will work it out you always do, and the dress will look perfect as though you never had a problem.
We are pretty lucky in Christchurch, we don’t have a big mozzie problem though they do come out at night a bit (and they like me, so I rarely go out after dark) and we don’t have the sandfly problem that almost everywhere has in NZ, especially the West Coast which is temperate rain forest and also a tourist area. When I lived in Napier I used to hate the beginning of the sandfly season, that first bite used to come up like an egg and once I ended up with a patch as big as a lunch plate on the back of my thigh, it nearly drove me mad. Then I discovered Anthisan and try never to be without it.
As for tourists, without them NZ would become one big farm or orchard! We don’t have loads of minerals to mine (thank goodness) and can’t compete with the low wage economies so have very little manufacturing. Fortunately most of our tourists are from Australia so opening our borders to them has rescued our tourism and hospitality businesses, (that and the Government wage subsidy). The latest Covid outbreak in Melbourne is a hiccup (border is temporarily closed to Victoria and New South Wales) but hopefully that will soon be under control.
We have a long weekend starting tonight (Friday) for Queen’s Birthday, the last one till Labour Weekend in October then Canterbury Show day a couple of weeks after that. Each province has their own Show day, always a Friday but different times. The show actually lasts a week but the Friday is the big day. Hopefully that will go ahead this year it was cancelled last year of course.
I haven’t had my vaccine yet. My son was asking me about it yesterday and was pretty upset when I told him it hadn’t got to me yet, or any of my friends. I think it has been an issue with supply. A lot has been diverted to places like India who need it a great deal more than we do here. Understandable but frustrating.
Enjoy your summer, only 3 months to spring here lol!
JEANNE. . Just ask someone who doesn’t sew how to fix a sewing problem, right? Wrong! But here’s my two cents (because of inflation!).
What about adding a band of the floral fabric that is the width of your ribbon that you will be using as a sash, so the extra band will be attached to the bodice at top and to the skirt on the bottom of the band. Maybe add some belt loops to hold the ribbon in place? This would eliminate moving your lovely placement of bows on the bodice. This is one gorgeous outfit. I’m going to keep my Sam doll in the dark on this one.
JOY, thanks for your additional info about RRFF updates. I am also on the email list for UN Bonheur de Colibri (France) and My Doll Best Friend in England.
ANNE, I love your letters as you tell us so much about your world. Thank you!
Everyone battling mosquitoes, I remember them when we lived on the water back in NH. Mosquitoes and black flies. Here in Salida there are some mosquitoes but pretty much by the river. We are 7 blocks away. Our biggest challenge here in town are the mule deer. No place is perfect, right?
Well, Jeanne, undoubtedly you have figured this out because you’re a wizard. Can’t wait to see what you come up with! 😊
You don’t have Black Flies in Salida? You are so lucky. When we used to camp outside Lake City they were horrible. They would come in about 9 a.m. when we were finishing up the breakfast dishes and my dishpan would be full of them not to mention having to fend off their bites. We tried to finish up before then if we could. We also left camp for the day and didn’t return until evening when they were bedding down for the night. It was a great place to camp but for the Black Flies.