Dress Projects

Guess I should post about this before Julia grows out of her new dresses!

Once upon a time, a need was discovered. When the air became fallish and my daughter would wear summery clothing on a cold and blustery day, Mom realized it was time to switch out the clothes! So I did. And then Julia, who'd had eighty meeting dresses and a hundred and eighty play outfits had about two. I became seized with the mad desire to sew something and began to formulate something weird in my mind's eye. I succeeded, I think, because it is unusual. But it's kinda darling, too! I made Julia a dress out of anti-pill fleece.

I found a blue from Joann's online that I hoped would be the right blue, and it was. I found a summery dress pattern in my big sewing box of paraphernalia and adapted it to suit my fancy.

Namely the sleeves needed to be less summery. I also decided to get "fancy" and use a special stitch from my cheap-as-dirt sewing machine, and I was relieved (pleased) with the result. It looks a bit like white snowflakes.

So this dress was a birthday present for her and I became concerned, because she got all hot and flushed when she played in this dress indoors. Maybe she's right to be wearing summer clothes in winter, who knows?

So I went on to make another dress with this same pattern, but this time I had grander plans. I would make her dress out of "cooler" flannel material, and mix and match a bunch of fabric.

The blue dress was a little loose, make the new one a single size smaller but just as long. Include the gores for the flared bottom and make fancier sleeves. Woo hoo! =) And so Julia helped me pick out the fabrics and we set to work.

Now we are almost done, just have to drive alllll the way into town to get a zipper and just haven't done that yet! I'm eager to get this dress washed and wash the folds out of it, tacky!

But I pinned the back and Miss Princess wore it for the afternoon.

I used a special stitch on this dress, but only for the neckline this time.

I just wanted to get the sleeves and skirt hemmed as quickly as possible!

Now that it's even colder, the blue is perfect and keeps her cozy. I'd like to make a red fleece dress next. Maybe when I'm in town for a zipper...