Strawberries at the Country Fair

I made this dress firstly to show that one pattern could be made in many different ways. I also wanted to enter it in the Project Run and Play sew a long contest, something I have been meaning to do for a while.   

The challenge this week on Project Run and Play is:

 "Design a look for your little one to wear that is inspired by your favourite vacation spot"

Our perfect holiday destination would be to go back to West Country in the UK  and I think this dress would be perfect at a lovely English Country Fair (perhaps worn with a cardigan) It would have been great to get some outdoor pictures complete with grass that is actually green and some cute animals to cuddle; alas  we live in Australia and we have had a very hot dry summer, the grass is patchy and not very green and to make matters worse it rained on the day I was planning to take photos; all the photos were taken in my (very cheap) Photography studio in my garage.   

The Feliz Dress (From "Sewing Clothes Kids Love" by Nancy Langdon and Sabine Pollehn)  is a great pattern because it is really simple and gives you a blank slate on which to place your own personal style (or your kids style). The dress is made up of two layers: an overdress and an under-dress. the overdress is open at the back to show off the fabric of the under dress. the back of the under dress is cinched in with rows of elastic. 

This dress was tricky, not because it was technically difficult, but rather because I found it hard to tone down my usual style.  I have had this cute strawberry printed poplin in my stash for a while now and it never seemed to work with whatever design I had in mind; I was glad when at last I had found just the right project for it. The pink fabric of the overdress is a cotton homespun I bought on sale; both fabrics came from Spotlight here in Australia. 

I Finished the hem of the overdress with a polka-dot bias binding and some super cute strawberry ribbon.

The hem of the under dress is finished with some delicate pink lace

 

I decided that the dress would look great with a simple sash to complete the look. I decided to run the sash over the top of the overdress and create more of an impact with it. 

As you can see Miss Loofie had an absolute ball taking these pictures and she loves this dress. I will be back really soon to share the second Feliz dress.