It has been a beautiful fall so far! The heat lifted last week and we are having cool nights and warm days. Perfect weather. We are outside as much as we can be, soaking up the sunshine and fresh air. I finally got my sewing room situated and this dress is the first project to be completed.
Rose got tall over the summer (she is still a peanut, though!) and a lot of her favorite dresses are too short. She is opinionated about her attire and prefers to wear dresses right now so I want to make her a couple of sturdy ones she can wear over and over throughout the fall and that don't require any special care.
For this dress I turned to my go-to pattern for little girls dresses, the Sense and Sensibility Regency Girls dress, and used up some rose printed cotton and repurposed a pink linen pencil skirt from my closet. I bought the fabric early in the spring of 2015, intending to make a dress for my baby girl before she was born but she arrived 5 weeks early and the dress never got made. I think it's more fun to sew for a toddler than for a baby, though (I love receiving her constructive criticism and seeing her enthusiasm as a garment takes shape!) and I'm glad I waited to use up this fabric.
I didn't have quite enough to make a whole dress so that's where an old linen skirt of mine came in. I used the linen for the bodice and an attached apron skirt. I think it's better this way since the linen washes up well and will help keep the lighter cotton clean! Rose isn't an extraordinarily messy child but she's a typical toddler and spills and stains are part of daily life. The rose printed cotton is really lightweight so the skirt is lined with part of an old cotton sheet that also serves as a built in petticoat.
It's warm enough to still go out without shoes or coats and Rose likes to pick up sticks and leaves from the backyard to throw into the fire pit. She and Benjamin frequently argue over who finds the biggest stick or the prettiest leaf.
And yes, she got a hair cut. I admit I'm not a fan of the look but she and Benjamin cut each others hair a few weeks ago with a smuggled set of Anne's safety kindergarten scissors and both of them had to get haircuts as a result. It will grow. It's just hair. But for now she's got a 1920's flapperish look going on. I think it will work well with the Halloween costume we have planned for her!
I really enjoyed making this dress and am so happy to have a nice space to sew in once more. It's good to feel settled in at last.
Happy October!
Its such a cute outfit. :)
ReplyDelete