Jack's Back... for Spring

Spring around here was kind of an on-again-off-again proposition. We had a freeze after Easter, and then *another* one two weeks later, and then a week after that the temperatures went into the 90s. So I'm still not sure we ever got an actual "spring" to speak of, but it definitely (and suddenly!) became time for short sleeved clothing, at least SOME of the time.

The only problem? In all my sewing for my daughter, I never actually MADE her a short sleeved dress (or top, for that matter). See Below.

On the bright side, that's an easy fix. I hand-sketched up all my short sleeved dress patterns (so my daughter wouldn't be distracted by color or fabric selection):

And since we had a Disney Vacation coming up, I spread out my shelf's worth of Disney-inspired fabric:

For pattern selection, A went with the tried & true Isla by SLPco. I could have seen THAT coming. But, can you guess which fabric she picked? If you remember how much she loved her Merry Nightmare shirt, that should give you a hint.

Yup, a Halloween/Christmas print! Technically Nightmare Before Christmas IS a Disney related, but... Augh. Next time, I curate my fabric selection more carefully. And buy more spring-y colors, apparently.

At any rate, even though the whole *point* of the exercise was to make A a short sleeved dress, I just... couldn't do it with Christmas fabric. Not if it meant she'd be wearing short sleeves at Christmas next year. But, I've been curious to try the ruffle sleeve option for a while, and this sounded like a good compromise/decent chance to experiment. I could always cut it off if I didn't like it.

Hilariously, when only the bodice was done I showed the results to my husband, and in a mix of (carefully masked, but not well masked) disbelief and horror he said "you're making a Mardi Gras outfit for our daughter?" He relaxed considerably when I explained that there would be a skirt on it, and it wasn't actually a midriff top for our 5 year old. But I think he was still relieved to see the final product.

Here it is! I used the non-drop waist, but lengthened the bodice by an inch without shortening the skirt (oops). I used the small circle flounce option on the sleeves rather than the large one, and took great care to fussycut the bodice so there'd be one moon in the center instead of two across the chest area. On the back, I did a star cutout.

And.. already A is a HUGE fan... I put it on her, and she spun for 5+ minutes, declaring "best dress EVER!!!" until she finally fell down.

I'm pretty excited about that reaction, and I'm pretty excited about the dress itself. It hasn't gotten worn *too* much yet, both because of our 90 degree heat and because those flounces mean it's not wise for her to wear it if there's any chance she might paint.

But she did get to wear it to a Kentucky Derby party earlier this year, and I am sure there will be other great opportunities this fall!

Looks like she cannot wait :-)