{a first wedding}

We're back from our weekend of wedding fun in Oklahoma, with great memories and new confidence in Tilly's ability to survive on little sleep. We're thinking of changing her middle name to "Party Animal". 

Luckily, her party dress was finished just in time, and Miss Rufflebottom even had a chance to practice her dance moves in it before we took off. (Good job I snapped a few pics then, as I forgot my memory card for the trip, and so am sadly lacking in photos of the actual wedding!)

What you can't see, concealed by layer upon layer of ruffle, is that I skipped out on using buttons altogether. Instead, we've got snaps. Yes, maybe poor Fiona Bell (the pattern designer) is preemptively rolling over in her grave. And yes, maybe we did have to hastily resnap poor Tilly up a few times during the wedding when she popped open. But it worked in a pinch. 

Much eating, dancing and meeting of family was had. Tilly even tried the wedding cake -- which, it turned out, was an excellent way to give a tired baby a boost of energy at 10pm!

Hope you had a great weekend, too. And that you got a little more rest than our little Party Animal!

{inspiration: photo booth}

Loving this idea of props on sticks from Oh Happy Day (they even have free printables over there for you to make your own). And what's cuter than adults and tiny fluffy dogs all dressed up? Why, babies all dressed up, of course! 

Yes, I'm thinking about having a few props on hand for Tilly's birthday party, for a few laughs. And, for any older children, it might be fun to have some plain white outlines (of bows, for example), so they can colour their own.

P.S. The party dress for Tilly, which is supposed to be worn to a wedding this weekend is no, not made yet, but yes, looking possible. A bit of topstitching here, a join in elastic there, and we'll be made. Fingers crossed that it fits!

{make it work}

I have new respect for Project Runway contestants.

A whole day to make a dress? That doesn't sound too hard, I'd always thought. It's not like they need to feed the kids, do the washing, and clean their fabric off the kitchen table afterwards.

But, this one little baby dress has had me up at night poring over the instructions, has had me in tears of frustration when I thought I'd sewn the armholes closed, and in tears of joy when I realised I'd actually done it right and wouldn't have to chop Tilly's arms off to fit her into it.

So far, the top of the dress is done, complete with ruffles, and I'm just trying to work out how to sew buttonholes so I can proceed with the undergarments. Any tips?

(No, unfortunately, my machine won't just do it...)

On second thought, maybe it's good as it is -- it can be her belly-dancing shirt.

In case you're wondering, the pattern is by Fiona Bell, of British kids' label Their Nibs. Here is the same dress in a lovely rose print in their online shop, (going for 28 pounds, if I might add). Beautiful.

baby blue

A second dress, to correct the mistakes of the first -- this version has no hidden holes where I re-did the binding, a proper hemline that doesn't come unfolded, and a Thai hill-tribe pompom for back-closure because buttons are so last week.

It's blue, blue completely blue (save for the red pompom) because I love how wearing blue makes Tilly's eyes seem extra blue, and because the fabric looked just like the one Lotta herself used in Simple Sewing for Baby.

So, my apologies to you, strangers in the supermarket who think that even the smallest dot of blue means 'boy', I really hope your heads don't spontaneously implode when you see a baby in a blue dress.

Start Now and Be Ready for the First Birthday

With Tilly just having turned eight months old, you might think it's a bit soon to be thinking about her first birthday. 

But, the list of things I want to make for her to celebrate is as long as she is, and growing at the same speed, so the earlier I start the better the chances are of some of it actually happening!

As Tilly has a lot of friends turning one before her, I thought I'd share our little list of plans, in case it sparks an idea in someone else. Our plans fall mostly into two categories: traditions I want to start now and repeat each year, and things that will be special just for this year.

Traditions to repeat:

• Create a photo book of all the "Tilly Tuesdays" from the year (she was born on a Tuesday)
• Take a photo of Tilly with her favourite stuffed animal each year
• Write her a letter (and hopefully get Justin to do one too)
• Have her colour the same picture each year
• Do something at 7:23pm (when she was born)
• Write a story book, featuring Tilly and Bella
• Take a photo of all three of us in a photobooth
• Record what a typical day in her life is like at this age
• Make a party dress

Special 1st birthday ideas:

• Make a felt crown, a la Soulemama
• Make a felt envelope, to be used for the birthday card/letter each year
• Put together a "zhua zhou" tray -- a Chinese tradition supposed to predict the child's future career

Yes, it's quite a list -- you can see why I'm starting now!

The first thing I wanted to tackle was sewing a dress for Tilly. One of my favourite memories of birthdays growing up is the beautiful rose-covered dresses my Mum sewed for me. Having never sewn any clothes before (except a skirt for our Miko Rabbit!), though, I thought I'd start with an easy pattern. Tilly's gingham dress above is my first attempt, using Lotta's Simple Sewing for Baby. It really was simple, turned out pretty well (it's wearable!), and taught me a lot about fun things like armhole bindings and how not to hem.

I'm working up to trying a pattern from Fiona Bell's Sewn with Love. Hopefully by the time Tilly is five or six, I'll be up to making that lovely dress on the cover, below.

Do you have any special birthday traditions, or favourite memories of a celebration?