Old habits die hard

Tuesday 28 June 2011
Thank you all for the suggestions on what to wear with the blue dress - I think I need to set aside a day for some dress up time to see what I have in the wardrobe that could work, but I realise now that I do have many options.  There is no formal dress code at my work, only the one I set for myself because I find it easier and quicker each day just to put on a matching suit each morning, but perhaps I should be more creative in what I wear.  Either way I don't think that the orphan dress will be without a partner(s) for long.

I don't want to harp on about my new overlocker too much because I'm sure you'll all got the message of how much I love it so I'll try to make this my very last reference to it.  Because it was such a pain to change threads in my old overlocker I used to decide on my sewing projects based on what colour thread was in the machine, and as a result used to do many projects in a row in the same colour.  Well I guess old habits are slow to die because after making my blue dress I decided to knock out one more quick project in blue before changing threads for another project.  Totally unnecessary now of course since it takes mere minutes to change threads, but it's a cute dress so I'm glad I did.

This project started life as a dress given to me by a friend who has a naughty habit of buying things without trying them on and not always bothering to return them either (yes Catherine, I'm talking about you!).  Anyway she gave me a bag of clothes that she thought I could wear or make something out of since the fabrics were quite nice, including this stretch denim dress:



When I tried this dress on the short length, the pleated empire line and the sheer shoulders reminded me of this:
source
Not a very good look at all! At first I was just going to take off the bodice and make it a pleated high waisted skirt but I already have two denim skirts so instead I took it completely apart and made this dress for Anna:



It's Simplicity 2320, the cap sleeved version of the grey corduroy dress with the red flowers I posted here.  The orange fabric is some cotton paisley print from the stash, and I reused the zipper from the original dress so overall this dress cost me nothing at all except for an hour and a half of my time. 

I'm really impressed with this pattern - it's quite simple to make, isn't an overly fussy nor too simplistic style and it's possible to achieve a very different look depending on choice of fabrics.  I can see a few more versions of this dress in Anna's wardrobe before she grows out of the size.

This dress was perfect for the sunny winter Saturday we just had to chase some bubbles:


For having a cup of tea:


And for munching on a matching orange lollipop:

21 comments:

  1. This is a really cute dress. I'm amazed by how quickly Anna is growing.

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  2. What a sweetie - your daughter and the dress

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  3. Another winner - love the fabric combo you've used.

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  4. Awh!! Too cute :) The dress is really lovely.

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  5. Super cute dress. I love the contrast fabric; nice spot of color. She's so cute!

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  6. A lovely dress on a very lovely little girl. (Love those tights with "built in" lacing!)

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  7. Precious! Nice job of using a contrasting fabric for the front bib.

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  8. adorable. I love that Simplicity pattern, have used it a few times. great look.

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  9. Love the refashion! The calico insert is so cute.

    My serger is fairly easy to change thread on, but I still generally do a bunch of color projects in a row before changing. Right now it's yellow (on project 1 of 3).

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  10. Darling dress, great idea and your daughter is so precious.

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  11. Really cute dress and the fabric combination is wonderful.

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  12. Anna's dress is gorgeous and my she is growing into a little girl. Hope your dress can be fixed to suit you.

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  13. She's adorable. The dress is pretty. I especially love the orange in it.

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  14. Way to go once again! I like it with/without the long sleeve under it! She seems to be all girl... just like my oldest granddaughter! After making a lot of different dress's/outfits for Church for her, my SIL came home one time and said that the nursery leader at Church said, "Grace has so many cute dress's, I don't think I've ever seen her in the same dress twice!" So now a year or so later... he seems to think that she has too many clothes! Funny cause he doesn't seem to see that she grows outta things quickly. Oh well... it's a guy thing! We will enjoy what/when we can! LoL...

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  15. Sometimes repurposing is awesome--and this is one of those cases!

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  16. Anna looks lovely - Is she getting red hair ! She seems to have grown alot since her last photos - they really do grow up too quickly .

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  17. Beautiful! What a chic little lady!

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