Rosebud Dress

Please excuse the photos taken with it pinned
to my ironing board - I don't have a small
enough mannequin

So, I’m guessing if you’re here, then you know about sewing blogs, and if you know about sewing blogs, you must know about Lindsey from The Cottage Mama. Lindsey’s work is truly incredible – most of us make clothes for children for them to wear, she makes tiny works of art to put on her children – seriously, the time and effort she must put into each and every piece, it’s like couture, but for kids. I’m a massive fan of hers. 

She has released a free pattern, WHICH JUST MAKES ME LOVE HER MORE, The Party Dress was originally released as a sketched pattern, but has since been rereleased to her email followers as a proper pattern, in sizes 6months through to 10 years (I KNOW!) - and it is just ADORABLE. I decided that I wanted to use it to make my flower girl’s dress for the wedding, but before I did that, I wanted to do a wearable toile, to see how long it would take, and to judge which size I needed to make it in. 

LOOK AT THOSE GORGEOUS
ROSEBUDS - THEY'RE JUST SO CUTE

I braved the button box for these

Now, a few weeks ago Mr P’s mother gifted me a HUGE bag of fabric – she doesn’t really sew anymore, and she had a lot of things from Mr P’s grandmother, who used to make bridal dresses when she worked! I was obviously, completely delighted, FREE FABRIC, that’s the best kind of fabric – and whilst I was rootling through it choosing what I would take away (all of it), our little niece was “helping” me. I decided on a whim to ask her what she would like a dress made out of, and she picked out some pink poly-cotton, and some sheer green fabric, I couldn’t tell you what it is. I was dubious at first, but then I stumbled upon these darling little rosebuds – I have SO MANY OF THEM, I only used a few for this project, as I felt too many would have overdone it, but it made for the perfect dress. 

I wasn't convinced on
the colour combo -
I AM NOW

 I lined the whole thing in dark green lining fabric (also from Mr P’s mother), and the buttons were from the button box she gifted me, OH YES, I GOT A LOT OF TRIM WITH THIS STUFF TOO. TRIM AND BUTTONS AND ZIPS AND ALL SORTS OF VINTAGY GOODNESS. 

Yes, the ironing board is
leaning against my dressform
#don'tjudgeme

 I will admit, the button box overwhelms me at times – I have OCD, and the mismatched array of buttons doesn’t sit well with that, HOWEVER, I managed to steel myself for long enough to search through and find some buttons to go with the dress – at the time, I also managed to find the CUTEST buttons for her flower girl dress, but you’ll have to wait to see those. I didn’t hem the green sheer fabric, just used the selvedge as the bottom hem, it kept it nice and light, and was neatly finished already – I’ve still got loads of all of these fabrics left, so suggestions would be welcome! (Although I’ve a plan for part of the sheer fabric, but not a lot of it…) and this was such a quick and easy sew, I made most of it in an afternoon at a friend’s house! (Craft Khaleesi, go visit her for AWESOME SCALE MAIL KNITTING).

Such cute button loops
Decorative stitches are the best!

 I finished the armholes and waistband by hand – because I like hand-finishing things. That being said, this is not the neatest sew I’ve ever done – it’s for a little girl, so I’m not bothered, because much though I love my little niece, she is VERY GOOD at destroying things – so I don’t expect it to last five minutes in her hands! I think one of the cutest features on this were an accidental feature! I hadn’t bought any ribbon or spare fabric with me to make button loops, however, I discovered that I’d cut the pieces for the sheer overskirt too long – so with a bit of chopping, I had enough of that to make into some adorable button loops, with the use of a decorative stitch on my machine – as advised by Craft Khaleesi, and oh my goodness, didn’t they just turn out cute? 

Hand finishing!
Yay!

Overall, a pretty adorable little dress I think – I’m hoping the recipient likes it, and I’m feeling really confident about making the flower girl dress :-D as it should be even easier to sew up, as it’s only got one layer… I say should be… famous last words!