another sweet little dress

We are currently going on day 5 of being housebound with a summer virus, and we are all starting to go a little stir-CRAZY. While the kids have been getting crafty with paints (finger painting, painting wood pieces for a birdhouse, painting themselves in the process...), I've been working away at more sweet dresses. Here is my latest one.

I am so in love with the fabrics in this dress. They are both from a Japanese fabric line called Sevenberry. I had seen fabrics from this line on a blog a while ago, but never really heard of or seen much of it since. Then a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a few prints it at my local Fabricana and I have to say, the feel of this cotton is amazing. It feels like a cross between a fine, lightweight quilting cotton and a shirting. And after pre-washing the fabric, there were barely any wrinkles! So awesome! Anyways, I scooped up the remaining 3 meters of the striped fabric and some of the coordinating black floral and whipped up this dress. I absolutely love the delicate pastel flowers mixed in with the bolder black and white stripes. Folksy classic with a bit of an modern edge.

Lil C was definitely not in the mood for pictures today so this was the only semi-decent shot I got. This is a size 4 with a few modifications (slightly larger width and length of dress and a longer neck elastic). I'm also thinking of adding a pocket or two.. 

And since it seems I'm a little obsessed with making these sweet dresses (6 so far and counting..), I've actually signed on to become a licensed maker of this dress and will be listing a handful of these in my shop very soon. 

x melissa

sweet little dresses

Last week I made a sweet little dress for a sweet little girl who just turned one year old.

The pattern is from Leila & Ben and it really is a darling little dress. I had seen it around on other blogs and Flickr for a while and it seems to be a staple pattern in every KCWC. I had some of this hot pink chevron in my stash and I think the bold pattern works well with the simplicity of the dress. With only two pattern pieces, this dress was super quick to sew and the instructions were clear and offered some great tips on making this simple dress even easier to sew. Love that.

I also recently got my hands on some of Martha Negley's Farmington Feathers in pink (I LOVE this print and this colourway) so I thought I'd sew up a sweet little dress for lil C.

I made the size 3T to test out the sizing and I'm thinking these dresses are scaled a bit on the bigger side, or at least are designed to be nice and roomy. Lil C is generally wearing at least a size 4 now and this fits pretty well overall. I did add some length to the elastic around the neck and arms, but I think next time, I will add a wee bit more (maybe 2" total on the neck and 1" on the sleeve cuffs) so it's a little more relaxed.

 

Overall, I think this is a pretty darn awesome pattern and will definitely be making more. I'm already picturing all the different fabrics and combos I want to try making it in.

And lil C seems to like it. Bandaged knees and all :)

x melissa