How to Sew A Simple Dress

Don't forget to link up to my Marvelous Mess Party.....I will be picking one project to feature on my sidebar for a week!!

I found a fantastic site with a tutorial for making pillow case style dresses.

The site is called Nancy's Notions and the purpose of sharing the tutorial is that you make one to keep and make another one to send to needy children in Africa. Isn't that wonderful?? I decided to go for it. You won't believe how fast this project is. I made two dresses in two hours!!

This past spring I went to Goodwill and found some really fun fabric in yellow dots and blue dots. So, for today, I used the yellow to make this pretty little dress. Whaddya think? I added a lace trim to the bottom.....

 And, even made a matching headband. :-)

Here is the video tutorial from Nancy on YouTube:

There is a PDF tutorial file to download on Nancy's Site HERE ....so go there and download the file. You'll also get directions on where and who to send it to!! So, get started making a little dress for someone you know....and for someone who needs it in Africa!!   

I shared this project at these funkalicious sites:

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Durable Leather Squeaky Dog Toy

Don't forget to link up to my Marvelous Mess Party.....I will be picking one project to feature on my sidebar for a week!!
We have an issue in this house. Chloe and Buddy aren't very tolerant.

Of shabbily made squeaky dog toys, that is.

I am determined to make them something that will last longer than 2 minutes. :-)
Wanna see what they can do to a regular squeaky in 2 minutes????

I had to get that squeaky out of Buddy's mouth before he swallowed it. :-)
So, here is my solution to the shabby squeaky:

It a leather lion with a squeaky I saved from a previous shabby toy. Not bad, eh? Leather is so incredibly durable....and doggies love to chew it. :-)

To make one of these you'll need:
leather
stuffing (saved from old toy)
squeaky (saved from old toy)

~Take an oval shape of leather.
~Fold it in half and trim one inch in on the outer egde all the way around (except for the straight edge).
~Trim out pieces for the ears, eyes, nose, mouth and sew them onto one side of the folded oval (the straight edge is his "chin" area).
~Sew the folded oval together around the Mane line....leaving enough room to stuff it (just like a pillow. No need to do any inside out tricks....you can hardly see the thread on the leather and it would make it *incredibly* hard on your sewing machine.
~Stuff the lion with the used fiber and the squeaky....make sure not to overstuff it or there won't be enough room for the squeaky to squeak. :-)
~Sew the remaining parts back up and give the toy to the dog.

Does the doggy like it?

Buddy does. :-)
See?
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