OK, remember wayyyyyyy back in October when my neighbor spied me photographing baby dresses and requested a dress for her granddaughter?  No, because that was OCTOBER and now it’s February?  I don’t blame you.  Well, I finally made it, and what I lack in promptness I hopefully make up for in cuteness-of-dress.

Sophia is 8, and she stopped by my apartment one day when she was visiting her gram for measurements.  She didn’t know why she was getting them taken, so when I told her I was making her a dress, her face lit up with a huge smile that nearly melted my heart.  When I asked her what she liked in a dress, she uttered just one word, “PINK!”  So this is suuuuuper pink!  Hopefully she’ll love it!

Historically I’ve not been that excited about kids’ sewing, so I wasn’t really looking forward to this project.  Someone suggested (Andrea, maybe?) that I find some fabric that I love but can’t really get away with wearing, so that’s what I did.  It was really fun to pick out something for a little girl, and seriously, I wish I could wear this print!  Prints like this are totally absent from the Garment District, so I ordered this from Etsy on sale.  It’s Briar Rose by Heather Ross.  It reminded me of a treasured pair of Strawberry Shortcake gym shoes that I had as a little girl (and kind of wish were still in my closet!).

I used the Oliver + S Roller Skate Dress pattern.  It’s really cute, and isn’t that fitted, which I liked since I wouldn’t be able to have Sophia try it on while I was making it.  I first saw this pattern during the Super Online Sewing Match on Sew Mama Sew- you can see the contestants’ fantastic versions here!  The name reminded me of skating on quads to the Ghostbusters theme song with my aunt and her high school boyfriend (don’t be a pervert, she was in high school, too, you weirdo!), so that was an automatic plus.  It’s kind of an expensive pattern, so hopefully I’ll have a reason to use it again down the road.

The dress goes together easily, so that’s a major plus.  You have to sew pretty carefully around the steep curves in the sleeves and the neck facing, so I couldn’t go at my usual pedal-to-the-metal pace, but that’s fine.  The dress is fully lined with a soft pink shirting from Chic Fabrics, and the finishing is really clean and neat.  I made view B (with the contrasting neck facing), used a covered button (covered by Man Friend!) for the back closure, and added a bow to the front using Tilly’s tutorial.  The only thing that annoyed me was that it took forever to mark the stitching lines for the elastic casing on the front of the dress, and by the time I was ready to sew them, the chalk had rubbed off, so I had to mark it again.  No one’s fault, but I wanted to complain, OK?  I’m also a little bit irked because I didn’t notice the print was directional when I was cutting, so the front has the stems facing up and the back has the stems facing down.  I’m guessing no one will notice… but if someone DOES notice, it will probably drive them crazy!

I really got into this dress as I was making it.  It was fun to think about what might make an 8-year-old happy.  I hope she loves the dress and feels really special every time she wears it!

Can you remember any favorite outfits from your childhood?  Any special dresses that made you feel like a million bucks?  Is there any chance that it’s socially acceptable for a woman in her thirties to wear a strawberry-print dress in Pepto-Bismol pink?

A wee strawberry button!