The Very Pink Pindakaas Dress

Yes, I have googled the word "Pindakaas" and learned it means "peanut butter" in Dutch. Thus, let me tell you all about my pink peanut butter dress, or, as I call it, my birthday dress. (Not to be confused with a "birthday suit"!!) This is not because I wore it on my birthday, but because I did most of the constructing of it on my birthday. And, it's pink.

The dress was finished, and photographed (by my brother who was excited to use his new camera) about 4 days after my birthday - so it was still my birthday week at least. And now, this dress and my birthday are linked together in my mind.

Aside from the timing of when this dress was made, the color also contributes toward the birthday-ness of the dress. It's pink. Very pink. And my favorite kind of birthday cake is generally strawberry, which is also pink. Sometimes very pink.

Thus, this is my Birthday Dress. And it's pink. Very pink. It stands out in my wardrobe because of it's very pinkness. Now why did I make such a very pink dress? This is not part of my usual color pallet, that's for sure!

The story begins a couple weeks before my birthday, back in June. It was the week after I got home from Japan, and I had the week off work. I was steadily working my way through my project list, making my Mrs. Maisel dress, my 4th of July dress, and my Joey Tank outfit, among other things. As that wonderful week off work was drawing to an end, I wanted to make myself one more dress. The only question was, what dress? I have a very long list of dresses I want to make myself!

As I was contemplating this, I saw a pattern tester call from The Eli Monster. As I've mentioned before, I do have a bit of a weakness when it comes to testing patterns for The Eli Monster. A new girls' dress, the Pindakaas Dress, had just been released, and matching adult version of the pattern was ready for testing. After a bit of thought, I decided that I'd like this fun open backed dress in my wardrobe as much as any other, so testing the pattern might as well be my next dressmaking endeavor for myself. I do love the uniqueness of the Eli Monster dress designs!

Thus, I volunteered to test the pattern, and began to consider what fabric I might have in my stash which would be suitable for this project. The dress on the pattern cover for the girls' version of the pattern is pink and looks fabulous. That stuck in my head and I was quite certain I wanted my dress to be pink as well. But did I own any pink fabric? That I didn't know.

I looked through my fabric stash and, in one of the bins from my aunt's friend's mother's sewing stash, I found it - 2.5 yards of hot pink floral batik. Just barely enough fabric for this dress. It was perfect!

So I did the whole pattern testing thing, making a mock-up, waiting for pattern revisions, then making a dress from the final pattern, and about 2 weeks after I decided to make this dress I had it - my very own pink Pindakaas dress. My Birthday Dress.

Great care was taken in testing to make sure the bottom back strap would align with the bra band, making it possible to wear a normal bra with this mostly backless dress - something I greatly appreciate!

When the dress was done, I dressed it up with my fancy cowboy boots, a net petticoat, a pair of pretty dangley earrings my sister gave me for my birthday, and a ribbon in my hair, then my brother and I went out to my grandpa's farm to photograph it. It was fun to have different back drop options than normal!

This dress is super fun to wear and quite eye catching. Even my relatives who are very used to my me-made wardrobe have commented  favorably on this dress. Apparently I look good in pink and should wear it more often.

This whole pink thing is an interesting idea which perhaps I ought to consider.

 But if I make too many pink dress, that might make this one less special, and I'm not sure I want that!

Maybe I should comprise by making myself a pink dress every year for my birthday - that just might do the trick!

*If you are interested in this pattern for yourself it is on sale for only $7 through this weekend!

**I received this pattern for free in exchange for testing it, but all thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog post are my own. I was not required to write a post about this dress.