An apple a day and a new serger

We're going apple-picking with my moms group in a week, and I wanted to have cute little apple dresses for the twins to wear...so, of course, I had to MAKE them! (Actually, I've only finished one so far, and I need to make a couple adjustments on the second one.)

I didn't have a pattern to follow, so it was a learning process. My mom blessed both my sister and me with a serger (to celebrate the fact that our business license came through - woo hoo!!), and this was my first chance to give it a test drive. I have to admit, I was more than a little intimidated when I took it out of the box. This is the serger -

But fortunately, it came with a very helpful DVD, which walked me through how to get started, and I had no troubles getting going.

I based the dress off a basic a-line jumper style pattern. All three fabrics are from Sandi Henderson's Farmer's Market line, which is one of my favorites. She's going to reveal her new line of fabrics on her blog on Monday - can't wait to see what she's got in store for us!! I made my own bias tape using the Clover bias tape maker - SO easy to use!! And I got the idea for making button holes and tying the knots in the straps from a dress I saw on Sandi's blog too.

I did learn from the first dress, after trying it on the girls, that I need to put the button holes all the way at the top of the dress - because as they are placed on this one, the top sort of flops over a bit. And it is HUGE on them right now - plenty of room for growing!!! It's light enough to be worn by itself as a dress, but roomy enough to be worn over a turtleneck and leggings when it is cold out. BUT I didn't make the straps long enough to grow with them for as long as the dress will fit...so I will make longer straps for the second dress - because it will continue to fit as a tunic top long after it is too short for a dress.

This is the bottom hem - also covered in bias tape.

This is the back.

I just LOVE this apple print, and am excited I still have almost a full yard of it left even after making the 2 dresses. Wonder what else I'll make?!