Charlotte's Web dress - Butterick B4718

The original plan was to make this Butterick dress for little P's birthday back in June. I had this cute blue and white gingham fabric with pink roses, which I thought would work perfectly with dress C but with the shorter length of dresses A and B.

 

I was toying with the idea of a Charlotte’s Web themed birthday party and I thought little P would make a great Dakota Fanning in her gingham dress. Okay I know the two dresses are totally different. It was more an inspired by than an actual copy of the dress below.

 

As a kid I longed for a proper big girl dress with a skirt that spun out when I twirled around and a waist around my middle and not up about my earholes. As far as I know little P doesn’t share this dress dream. But if there is a decent dose of pink thrown in, it’s all good in her book.

 

Back to the birthday - I had a mental picture of the garden full of hay bales, a petting zoo with piglets, spider's web-shaped climbing ropes hanging from the trees. It would have been amazing but in the end I didn't get the dress finished in time and the only nod to Charlotte was the pig-shaped cake. We all had a great time even without the extra Charlotte paraphernalia!

 

The reason the dress was only half cut out on the eve of her birthday was I ran out of fabric. I made a silly mistake early on and misread the layout instructions. I hadn’t understood that a piece which is shown half dotted half plain in the layout is actually one piece not two and you are supposed to cut it out last of all. Well I snipped it in two and was suddenly missing half my bodice.

There wasn't time to get more fabric - in fact the shop had completely run out - so I put the whole project to one side. When I came back to it recently, I realised if I lined it in a contrasting fabric and turned one of my back bodice pieces into a front piece it might just be salvageable. Luckily I'd cut out the back as one piece not two. I already had a bubblegum pink zip to go with the roses so I picked out a matching pink lining fabric. I really liked the little peek of pink at the neckline and armholes. In fact I was really proud of how the bodice turned out. Everything lined up and looked really neat.

The zip was more troublesome. I couldn't make sense of the instructions and wasn't even sure what sort of zip I was aiming for. After a fair amount of pinning and experimenting I figured out how to attach the zip to the outer fabric. I then sewed as close as I could to the zip teeth with my regular presser foot. It worked fine but I seem to have sent the thread tension out of whack ever since!

I was completely bamboozled about how to attach the lining fabric to the zip and hide the raw edges. I had already sewn up the side seams and attached the bodice to the skirt so there was no way of turning the fabric inside out. I really didn't want any raw edges along the zip so hand sewed the zip to the lining inside which looked okay. 

Sometimes dressmaking feels like figuring out a rubix cube. I think next time I would attach the zip to the bodice before sewing on the skirt so I could machine the inside. I would also tuck away all those raw edges where the skirt joins the top. Maybe I'd have to hand stitch all the way around the waist?

The finished dress looked great but initially the fit was terrible. I used age two sizing for the width and age three for the length as that matched little P’s measurements most closely. The length was fine but it was ridiculously large around the body. Rather than unpick the zip - I couldn’t face it - I snipped it out and bought a new one. It was only 40p. Then I took the whole thing in by a couple of inches around the back. I thought it might throw the armholes out of kilter but it worked just fine.

And here it is. It's pretty. It's comfy. It has a satisfyingly swirly skirt. It's great for a party or just playing out in.

She loves it! I love it and would definitely give this pattern another go.

Dinosaur cake

This beauty is my first ever attempt at a novelty birthday cake. And I have to say I am mighty proud of him. Little M like most boys his age is OBSSESSED with dinosaurs. I would be surprised if there are many palaeontologists out there more informed than he is. Initially I had no intention of making one myself but by the time I had unsuccessfully scanned all the supermarket shelves and got a quote from a local baker (too pricey), I realised it was all down to me.

The fanciest I have ever got with a birthday cake before is to write their new age in smarties on the top of a Victoria sponge so this was quite a leap. I used a Nigella recipe for a birthday buttermilk cake which is supposed to be good for holding unusual shapes. And I baked it in this cake tin. Don’t worry I didn’t sculpt the whole thing myself. 

 

I was forewarned by reviews on amazon that you needed to use cake release spray to grease the tin. It is pretty gruesome stuff. It contains wax and all sorts of worrisome ingredients.

 

It worked because the cake slipped out like a dream but did leave a weird bubbly texture across the surface. Here he is in all his naked T-rex glory.

I did have to mentally ease up on what I do and don’t allow the kids to eat for this cake. The green icing I used had a warning on the pack that one of the E numbers could cause kids to become over-active. I reasoned a birthday comes once a year and I could have them back on the healthy stuff the next day.

I rolled the icing as thin as I dared and draped it over the cake. I was convinced I would immediately lose all the lovely dino detail but it came through after a bit of gentle pressing and stroking.

I used squeezy tubes of fruit gel for cake decorating to pick out the details and cut out triangles of white icing for the teeth and circles for the eyes and dotted jelly tots everywhere. My friend who must be psychic texted me at 10pm saying I hope you are not up making the cake. I was. You can see my espresso cup in the background.  

The birthday boy loved it though you wouldn’t know from this rather melancholy picture post candle blow out. Maybe he’s focusing on his birthday wish.

And Little P couldn’t get enough of the green icing. I kept a sharp eye on her for signs of hyperactivity but I think she was okay.

I was trying to psyche myself up for another novelty cake bake a few days later for Little P’s birthday. She had her heart set on a Hello Kitty cake but I was feeling a little baked out. I knew I had found my perfect out when I spied this pink piggy in M&S.

My kids’ current film obsession is Charlotte’s Web so when they saw Wilbur in cake form I knew I was off the hook, Hello Kitty well and truly forgotten. I was going to make an accompanying Charlotte from a tunnocks teacake and eight chocolate fingers but we all forgot so it didn’t really matter.

 

Maybe next year...

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

Phew! I’ve thrown two birthday parties in one week. Little M turned five and little P three within days of each other. It was the first time I'd done separate ‘at home’ parties for them and oh my goodness it was hard work! I hadn’t realised how much preparation was involved.

Little M’s party fell on the only rainy day of the week, which meant no bouncy castle in the garden and ten boisterous boys bouncing around indoors instead. Luckily I was ready with plan B, a military precision schedule of party games and party food all timed to the last minute.

I am always amazed at other children's parties how kids love doing crafts. I guess they need something calming after all that jumping around. I’ve seen crown making, colouring party bags and biscuit decorating all go down really well. We opted for shield making. I cut out shield shapes in gold and silver card and they decorated them with stickers, pompoms and feathers. It was amazingly popular and we had a prize for the best knight.

As a complete contrast, it was a gloriously hot day on Little P’s birthday, so we had a very easy laid back party in the garden. We finally got our bouncy castle. Hurray! And a rather bizarre warning not to have a barbeque on it. We only needed a couple of party games as the children seemed happy enough racing around the lawn.

We survived it. The children had fun. And there weren't too many tears that couldn't be dried with a packet of Haribos. So here are my tips for hosting a children's party;

• Get help: I’m not including husbands or partners here. You need expert multi-taskers. That means women. Recruit your mum, sister, sister-in-law, other mum friends.
• Keep it simple: Yes I know you want to go all Nigella Lawson domestic goddess but save yourself the hassle. Kids want chocolate finger biscuits and hula hoops. Save your tiffin recipe for a rainy day with the kids. Ditto making your own bunting. Ditto sewing a homemade party dress. You don’t have the time!
• Keep it cheap: I discovered the marvels of the 99p store. Stock up on cute paper cups and plates, party bag supplies, balloons, pass the parcel gifts, pretty much everything here.
• Plan, plan, plan: Make a playlist in advance. Gangnam Style seems to be the party song of choice for YR boys. Dora Explorer is a winner for pre-school girls. I can report that Skyfall was only a popular choice with me. Decide in advance what games you are playing and when you are eating.  
• Haribos: These little gummy wonders are your secret weapon. Hand them out frequently to keep everyone sweet.
• Party bags: If all else goes wrong at least you are sending them on their way with a good party bag which will wipe all preceding disasters from their memories. That is my theory anyway. I put plastic dinosaurs, pencils and haribos in bags for Little M’s friends and fairy wands, bouncy balls and haribos in Little P’s friends.
• Remember: They will be excited about hanging out with each other outside school or pre-school. All the rest is flim flam.

And finally, put a bottle of prosecco in the fridge to chill for later on. You've earned it!