A New Party Dress

It's party dress season in this house again! This is the first year in many that I have made a dress for little e as she is so fussy about what she wears. Normally the things I make sit, unworn, in the wardrobe until they are too small.

This year was different, my parents celebrated their Ruby Wedding anniversary on Sunday and about a month ago Mum took little e shopping to buy fabric for a dress for her party. This seemed to be the key...

She chose a quilting cotton with multi coloured butterflies on a black background. Nothing like what I would have chosen but she loved it. Then, after much deliberation, she chose this pattern:

McCalls 6020, view C but without the band. I cut the bodice front with extra length to take account of the  removed band and it worked well. I only lined the bodice as thought it would be a bit warm with a fully lined dress.

Initially she wanted sleeves as well but I got carried away and before I knew where I was had a fully lined bodice. There was no going back as I had clipped corners etc so the sleeves were scrapped and a we bought a new cardi instead.

why oh why does she always have to pull a face.... like mother like daughter I suppose :)

I also made a matching hairband - this was very well received!

I hope she will wear the dress again for her birthday in August but I have a suspicion that she might ask for another one that fully meets spec this time :)

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A wee dress...that will probably never be worn...

Little e - queen of fussy dressers (and eaters but that is a whole other topic..) requested a dress. Yes, the girl who will only wear dresses if they are jersey fabric and not made by me actually asked me to make her a dress.

She chose this pattern
 

 and some pink gingham fabric with flowers printed on it.

I had to shortened the skirt by about 1/3 of the length as it was proper party dress length and she doesn't like dresses below the knee. Also, I lined the bodice which hides some of the scratchy seams...

It looks nice on the hanger, if only I knew what it looked like on, but of course she says it is a party dress and there have been no parties to go to yet...

My bets are that it is never worn and ends up as a gift for one of our friends daughters.

Oh well, it was nice of her to ask..

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3/52 - A Snowy Day

 I am joining in 52 Portraits again this week.

Ready to slide! It is my big boy's last day of being 6 today, 7 seems so old....

That was fun!

 Saturday Sledging! We have the perfect slope at the side of the house for sledging and this is the first proper snow since we moved in a year and a bit ago so we have all been enjoying it!!

Snow Angels!

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52 in 2013

I am joining in ( a wee bit late) with the 52 portraits of your children in 2013 over at Che and Fidel .

Here are my first 2 weeks (rubbish phone photos...):

1/52

Tea time in a messy half finished kitchen!!

First (and last if I get my way) ice cream factory

2/52:

They wouldn't cooperate for separate photos so I got a 'hug'!

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Great kids toy!

I totally underestimated the brilliance of this cuddly bird (it is a chaffinch). It was bought from the RSPB and when you squeeze him he does the call of a chaffinch.

Most of the time he is in his nest (which is clematis twisted in to a nest shape and tied with string) but in the small amount of time he is played with he has obviously made an impact. When little e was in the garden the other day she shouted "Mummy, Mummy birdie making noise like my birdie!" and when I went outside she was right there was a chaffinch tweeting away! I was amazed she recognised it, so cool! I think there may be more birdies living here soon!

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