A New Dress

In between farmers markets and family reunions I made Creamie a new dress over the weekend.  It has a shirred top, similar to her 4th of July dress I made a few weeks ago.  It was easy, fast and the results are super cute, and that is my kind of project.  I  am loving the versatility of this pattern by dana at made.  (And to make me like her even more (if that were possible) dana recently featured a picture of Creamie in her 4th of July dress in this post!)

I actually bought this fabric more than a year ago.  Purple really isn’t my color, like at all.  I’m actually going to call this lavender, that makes it seem less awful in my mind.  But, there’s a story here, ready?  Creamie was a very strong baby, holding her head up by the time she was two days old and standing up while holding onto one (yes, just one) of my fingers before she hit 2 months.  She was just so interested in moving and seeing things that she wasn’t about to sit still.  I think she was just impatient to get going, like her mother.  Sometimes as she would stretch her neck and turn her head to see what was going on she looked just like a turtle, peeking out of her blankets.  And Scott started calling her Tortuguita, which means “little turtle” in Spanish.  It was right about this time that I saw this fabric, designed by Anna Griffin.

And the first two times I saw it I didn’t buy it.  It had two major flaws.  Number 1: It was purple.  Number 2: It had turtles printed on it.  I’m not really a turtle prints kind of girl.  And it took some time to come to terms with both of these in my mind.  But I finally caved and brought it home with the intent to make her a dress.  Eventually.  And then six months later I saw these little lavender Mary Jane shoes on clearance for $3.  They were a  near perfect match, but only in one size.  So I decided to wait until she grew into the shoes to make the dress so she could wear them together.  Brilliant of me, right?  Actually it was probably more a case of  “oh-good-now-I-can-procrastinate-this-project-a-little-longer-without-having-to-feel-guilty-about-starting-new-projects.”

At any rate it is now 16+ months after I purchased the turtle fabric and I have a finished project.   And I have come to terms with the little lavender turtles and now I actually like them.  It probably had a lot to do with finding the coordinating lavender and lime green print for the hem and the sash.  You can’t go wrong with a little lime green, right? This dress is complete with puffy sleeves (no pattern for those, I made those up as I went and only had to pick them out once, which I consider very successful), a long lavender sash and matching MaryJanes.  This is probably my new favorite.  I love how she looks in it.  And as long as she can collect a handful of sticks she likes whatever she is wearing.

I made this hem six inches deep so that I can let it out as she grows and hopefully this dress will last more than her standard three months.  Not that I mind.  When she grows out of this round of dresses I will have the perfect excuse to make a few more.  What did you get done with your weekend?