A few weeks back I made the trek into the city to go to the City Sewing Room. I'd been resisting the temptation for months as it's quite a drive now and I hate the city traffic, but eventually, with Christmas sewing on my mind, I couldn't resist the call of cheap fabric any longer and I went.
I brought home 3 trash bags full of treasures that day (1.5 were full of yarn for my sister, so my fabric stash didn't grow too horribly much!), and among those treasures were two small cuts of quilting cotton with pretty metallic prints. One was ivory with gold fruits and vines all over, and the other was teal with gold ivy all other. The fabrics were so pretty together I had to get them, however with less than a yard and a half of fabric between the two I had no clue what I would use them for.
Fast forward a couple weeks and I was looking through my collection of children's patterns, looking for the right pattern to use for my niece's Christmas dress, and I came across a 1950's little girls' dress pattern in a size 3. It was an absolutely adorable design and I decided I'd better make it quickly before my niece out grew it.
It wasn't quite right for the Christmas dress I had in mind, but then I remembered those metallic prints. Could it work? Would I be able to squeeze this design out of those small cuts of fabric? Well, it was worth a try! Shelving the Christmas Dress idea until the following week, I decided to make a go of this pattern and fabric combo.
It was tight, but it worked!
I had a full yard of the ivory print so I cut the body of the dress from that. I had to reduce the width of the skirt slightly to make it work, but this skirt was FULL so that wasn't a big deal. The end product was still satisfactorily swooshy.
I used the teal for the collar, sleeve bands, bodice facing, and pockets.
My niece is a girl after my own heart and must have pockets!
I used every last scrap of both prints and lined the pockets and pretty scalloped collar with a bit of unbleached cotton muslin I had on hand.
I gave the dress to my niece on Thanksgiving, and she fell in love with it and decided to put it on right away.
That's the best sort of reaction to a handmade gift!
She wore it for all the festivities;
Eating dinner, visiting with relatives, playing outside.
She had an absolute blast playing in the leaves!
She assisted in burying her uncle in leaves.
So I had to come rescue him.
Sweet. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
ReplyDelete