I finished the March Dress around 11pm on March 31st.  Thanks to the chaos in my house, it is just getting posted today!  In other words the only place my ducks are all in a row is on this dress!  I want to thank Wanda who had the idea for this dress at the lake and Jan Kerton from Windflower Embroidery who teaches how to make these adorable stuffed animals and puts them on the most beautiful blankets you have ever seen.

To make the ducks, begin by drawing them on a piece of tear away stabilizer and pinning it to the wrong side of the wash cloth.  Remember they will be facing the other way once they are stitched and turned. Using a thread color that you will be able to see slightly on the washcloth, stitch the inside lines with a short stitch length (in this case the duck’s wing and the line separating head and bill.) I used white thread and 1.5 stitch length.Pin a piece of lining material to the back of the wash cloth and stitch around the outside of the ducks. Tear away the stabilizer and trim the ducks leaving a 1/16 th to 1/8 th seam allowance.Cut a slit in the lining and turn the duck right side out.  You can then add a small amount of stuffing is you want to give your ducks some dimension.  Whip stitch the opening closed.  Using up and down back stitches and 2 strands of orange floss, stitch around the wing and the line between the head and bill.  Use brown floss to make a french knot eye on the baby ducks and a granito eye on the mother duck.  Using a simple whip stitch, attach the ducks to the dress.  I tucked mine under the ric rac to look like waves and stitched the ric rac to the ducks.  In order to give the ducks a smooth surface to swim across, I shifted the one central pleat on the front of the jumper to 2 pleats.  In order to do this, simply measure the size of the pleat – on a size 5 this is 3 1/2 inches.  So I need to make 2 smaller pleats each 1 3/4 inches.  Divide the skirt front in thirds and mark.  My skirt is 18 inches so I made 2 marks each 6 inches apart.  Starting at the mark, measure 1 3/4 inches toward the side seams and make a second mark.  If you center your pleats on the 6 and 12 inch marks, you will be taking too much material from the center.  Join your two marks and stitch the pleat as per the pattern directions. Have you finished your Easter sewing?  I need to finish my dress and of course the April jumper will have some ideas for you as well!