little dresses

Miss Frida has remained pretty adamant about dresses being the only appropriate garb for her.  We have managed to get her into shorts and tee shirts a few times this summer, but dresses are definitely her apparel of choice.

She recently outgrew a few dresses and has also had some moments of rebellion against the ModKids Frida dresses that dominate her homemade wardrobe ("No dresses with bows!").  Oh well.  Most of her MK Fridas are getting too small anyway, so I suppose it's time to move on.  (I have one more Frida cut out, from a lovely Anna Maria Horner fabric, but I'll try to adapt it so it is a bit different from the usual MKF.)

Looking through my patterns I had the sudden revelation that a few of my Oliver + S patterns -- and they're ones that I had not touched -- top off at size 4.  SO...it's now or never (now or wait for granddaughters!).  I cut out fabric for an Ice Cream dress and a Hopscotch dress, straight away.

Fabrics were Frida's choice, which means PINK, lots and lots of pink.

Since I am officially on holiday, I took all day yesterday as a garment sewing day, using patterns and fabric from my stash (which is extremely satisying). I finished off both dresses...and in the evening I made a pretty slinky pencil skirt (from Sew U Home Stretch) for myself.  If it's tricky to get Frida to model a dress (she's wiggly and impatient), it's going to be even harder to get one of me in my new skirt.  But maybe I'll give it a try.

For now, here is Frida in her Ice Cream dress, slightly disappointed that it didn't come with an ice cream cone as pictured on the pattern envelope, but very happy nevertheless.







She wanted to try this one on right away!



























And we are both especially pleased with the Hopscotch dress, which I made on my (relatively new) Janome serger (I even used wooly nylon in one of the loopers, I was feeling adventurous!).  This dress is a big success and super comfy in a Michael Miller cotton interlock.

She wore this dress at dinner last night, to the playground, she slept in it AND she's wearing it at school today.  I think she likes it!

I don't own the larger size range of Hopscotch, so I'm going to whip up more size 4s while she can still get use out of them.

 I have (or had) a fair collection of interlock, from a sale last year on Fabric.com, so this morning I cut out pieces for two more short sleeved dresses and two long sleeved ones.

I hope no one is alarmed by the sight of an Oliver + S pattern cut (rather than traced): I'm using the largest size and these pattern pieces have no size-line overlaps, so there's nothing sacrificed here.  I had to trace the Ice Cream dress pattern pieces, and you know what?  I really don't enjoy tracing patterns...so I'll cut this corner where I can.

The Hopscotch dress is a great, easy pattern -- I recommend it highly!  If you have access to a serger, that's great, but since knits don't fray you really could make this on a regular domestic sewing machine with a stretch or small zig-zag stitch.  Liesl provides some "sewing with knits" guidance in her instructions, and adresses both types of machine.   

I have to admit that all this sewing with knits is making me hungry for a coverstitch machine; the hems you can make on the Janome 1000CPX look so amazing (yes, I watch youtube videos of people sewing hems...doesn't everyone?).

The Hopscotch skirt is adorable...if one were sewing for a little girl who would consider wearing something other than dresses.  Frida has been known to wear a skirt and top on occasion, so I might just have to make one and see if I wrestle her into it....