It's been a yearly tradition that I will custom made Chinese New Year cloths for my little girl. This Rooster year, has no exception too.
2014
My first attempt with Cheongsum started 3 years ago when I was learning to sew with Google tutorials (yes, Google). Being a total novice, I had only made some baby dresses & accessories, yet was daring enough to try out making Cheongsum. It was obviously amateur work, you may see the grey polkadot Cheongsum here (diy baby cheongsam) or the chuckle and scallop Cheongsum here (mad about cheongsam)
2015
Then, a year later I became bold and was attempting few vintage dresses that I came across while window shopping, or browsing online. I made a total of 3 pieces with my self-made pattern and the square neck red polkadots remain one of my favorites till today. You can see them all
2016
Came last year, I decided to go hybrid. I made one piece of Cheongsum (with a cuteness overload pink kitty fabric!) and some English dresses which I have pretty much mastered by now (or so I love to think so :)). You may view the handmades here (cny special petite spring dresses) or just as shown below..
2017
Finally, this year. Despite I was tied up with work, I managed to push my lazy bones to produce 2 Cheongsum that i am pretty satisfied with, with high collar and long zipper to easy fitting. My little bunny absolutely loved her new CNY dresses and was proudly parading around. :))
The first Cheongsum. Love the lollipop and candy prints on this fabric. Bought them from US Joanne store years ago and finally put it to good use. This modern print gives an interesting twist to an otherwise ordinary Cheongsum pattern.
I added a candy button on the back of the dress for some extra cuteness. :)
Here's the second dress, using Michael Miller designer fabric combined with silver tutu skirt as bottom. I love using 100% designer cotton as they are soft & comfy even after many washes. I decided to use contrasting grey bias tape and I thought it turns out pretty nice, doesn't it? ;-)
The Accesorries
Notice the colorful zipper? They give some fun feeling to the dresses. I found the knot buttons for RM10 for 3 pairs at the local sewing supplies store and have successfully used up 2 pairs. Thank goodness I have hoarded lots of fabric and have few yards of reds available. I still have some beautiful Sarah Jane and Micheal Miller fabrics that I am keeping for later use. They are just so adorable that I could not lay my scissors on them. I just took them out of the box, admire, then store them back again. Silly, I know.. But I could not help it. :P
Oh, and if you like to have some handmade buttons with matching fabric, you can buy the manual button maker from daiso for just RM5.30, comes in various sizes and refills.
The Design
The Cheongsum design was inspired by this knit Cheongsum that Big Guy bought from the store. I used it as a base to trace the pattern and added 2" extra on the sides since I'm using non-stretchable cotton fabric. It is quite easy to make, really, took me about 4 hours to complete each of the dress and each requires about 1 yard of fabric and 1 pack of bias tape.
That's all folks. If you love sewing and is an amateur like me, I encourage you to keep trying and don't feel intimidated. Just start off first with some cheaper fabric and when you have gathered enough confidence (through enough trials),only then move on to your beautiful fabric collection.
All the 9 CNY dresses I've made for the my little C, which is your favorite? :)
Keep calm and keep sewing..
Love,
PH
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