Friday, March 22, 2013

Stripey Ruffly Baby Dress ~ Sneak Peek

Anne's dress is coming along. I did not end up getting a roll hem foot because I was too impatient to wait to get one, so this dress is coming out looking a lot clunkier than the original dress, which you can see here (didn't link to it in the last post; bad me.) 1922-1924 White Ruffled Cotton Lawn Dress.
The color and ruffles reminds me of baby lettuce leaves!

Mine is not an exact copy. It is made of striped voile instead of plain white lawn which was originally a sickly hue of greenish-lemon-yellow that I dyed with a box of teal RIT dye. Because this dress is being made for a baby instead of a child who is several years old (the owner of the original dress was born in 1919) I could not without extreme difficulty shrink the proportions of the dress properly. It was soooo hard to make 1" wide ruffles! I just could not go any narrower without having the hems look larger than the center portion of the ruffle! So I have just 5 ruffles on the skirt, set 1" apart, instead of the 7 ruffles the original dress has. And my treatment of the sleeve ruffles (single instead of double) and the neckline ruffles (which I may, very possibly may, take off and redo) are different.

But I am actually really happy with how it is coming out. True, tiny things bother me. Like a few of the skirt ruffles are not exactly the same width as the other ruffles. But really who is going to notice? So I try to reassure myself.

The baby tried it on last night and it looks so adorable on her. Of course, she looks adorable in anything (at least I think so) but the color is great for her and the style is feminine without being uncomfortable. I remember being so miserable in scratchy lace and net-underskirted-dresses when I was little! I loved the frilly dresses but always thought the price for beauty was uncomfortable-ness. ;) The size is a little big, on purpose. The waist is not fitted and the skirt goes all the way down to the tops of her teeny pink toes. She should be able to wear it for a while.
For some reason the neckline ruffles bug me. I think it is the header on the lower ruffle  - it just kind of jars me. Not sure how to go about fixing this. Unless I just bind take off the top ruffle, bind the neckline and add a ruffle with a header above the lower one. That may look better. 

I still need to probably redo the neckline ruffle and then finish a few seams, add a few snaps to the back opening and then the dress will be done. I have plenty of fabric left over so I want to make a matching baby bonnet to go with the dress. And maybe a sash?

Speaking of my little lady, she turned 8 months old yesterday. I can't believe she is already this old. She is a true joy and I can't imagine our family without her now that she is here!

I'm still kind of in awe I even was pregnant and had a baby - it all still seems surreal to me. We all love her so much. She's bubbly and funny and happy and looks so much like her daddy. He's pleased at least one child looks like him. The boys really do not. 

I think she rounds our family out rather nicely! I need to buckle down and finish our dresses today or tomorrow. I still need to finish the sash for my own dress and decide on a style for Anne's bonnet.

Love,
Sarah

5 comments:

  1. Well Baby Anne and her new dress are beautiful!

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  2. I love how that turned out! The ruffles look great to me and I love the color, too. I can't wait to see it on Anne!! Happy Easter to your family.

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  3. I would be very pleased with those ruffles and this beautiful little dress!

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  4. Love this one Sarah, very nice colours, love the ruffles. Think it will match very nice with the eyes of your cute Anne. xoxo

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  5. Inspiring work for a lovely girl !
    I discover this blog.
    http://les8petites8mains.blogspot.fr/2012_08_01_archive.html
    It's in french, but it shows a lot of child clothing

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Thank you for your lovely thoughts!