A couple of weeks ago I let Violet pick out fabric for a new dress. My original intent was to make a dress from this pattern I bought on Etsy. Unfortunately, the pattern calls for 54 inch wide fabric and well...I didn't think Violet would look good in upholstery cloth. The drafter of the pattern uses recycled and reclaimed fabric almost exclusively, so I'll return to it when I get some good vintage sheets.
Patterns were on sale while we were at Jo-Ann's, so I found a different dress to make. Violet was patient for about the first 10 minutes of this excursion and then she started moaning on the floor about it taking too long. When I handed her a pattern catalog, she immediately began demanding that I make her a series of ever more ridiculous items from the costume section.
I settled on this, because I like patterns that have a lot of options for customization.
Violet refused to take the tights off for this photo and insisted that she pose like a "queen".
I'm not sold on the dress. It fits weird and the sleeves are too puffy. We did a good job collaborating on the fabrics and Violet is not bothered by the wonky shape of the garment, so I'll let it go. I don't know if I'll make another though.
I was inspired to make something simpler, using scraps from the under dress. I frequent a blog called indietutes and she has posted a free tutorial on how to make a basic peasant blouse. It is a terrific formula for making shirts and dresses. It's really easy to adjust and sew. She also wrote the aforementioned pattern requiring 54 inch fabric.
Perhaps I'm still drunk on last night's final installment of Emma on PBS, but I think this looks just a 19th century child's dress. The brown fabric is a deliciously soft hunk of fabric cut from the sheets that graced my bed for 2 years. When Vi put it on she said, "Oooh, silky." It is. I might save the top sheet for myself.
