Another dress from heck and vacation sewing

About 2 years ago, I cut out a dress from Smurfs material. It's a size 5/6 for little girls. I thought it would be fun to put together, embellish, and possibly sell. I started sewing it together and saw that the fabric had some small blue blotches here and there. Argh. I got mad at it and put it away. Did I mention the dress has a zipper and I hate zippers? Argh again.

I pulled it out before vacation in February and decided it was time to finish it. Two years was long enough to get over being mad at the fabric. Peter Pan collar, a bodice to which I could add some trim, and what a cute dress it was turning out to be. A friend had given me a zipper and I put it in as best I could. Then it broke. The derned zipper broke.

Off to the store with me. I was determined by now and bought a zipper for the stupid dress. Before I could sew it in, I had to rip out the other one without ruining the back of the dress. I've mentioned before this is my favorite sewing tool:

I got it out and went to work. One stitch at a time, then two and three, and finally, got it out without too much damage. I was happy to throw the broken zipper away. It gave me a feeling of power. Take that, zipper!

The new zipper went in okay and I added a little hook at the top of it to provide full closure. I had asked my nieces to get me some arm measurements from their daughters, so that made finishing the sleeves possible. Last came the hem. Easy peasy as I was going to add trim anyway. Whirrrrr on the machine. Honesty, I don't think I hate it anymore! But I can't sell it. I messaged my niece on Facebook last night and asked if her daughter/s could wear this size, and yes, they can! I packaged it up and mailed it off to Texas this morning. I even included extra trim in case she can use it for their hair or something. So, how did it turn out?

I hope the girls love it.

While I was on vacation, I started a small lap quilt. I took the white and red fabric with me, but my poor sister had to go to the fabric store to pick out the green. She is the one who found just the right green! There's more to come on this one; I never go out of town without my hand sewing.

It's a lot further along now, but this is how it begins.