The too late for school photos dress: Simplicity 2907

Thank you all for your suggestions and helpful comments on the fit issues of the green dress - I knew that I'd get some great suggestions on how to fix it.  I agree that the hemline could be raised, in fact I haven't even hemmed the dress, only lazily overlocked the bottom and left it at that so I can easily raise it from dowdy to knockout (ha ha).  I will also try taking in the centre front dress panel too, in order to get a snugger fit across the midriff below the bust, although that is going to take some serious unpicking first and I despise unpicking stitches on knit fabrics.  So stay tuned......  Oh yeah, and thanks Caroline for pointing out the bullseye on the right hand side - I can't believe I didn't place the print better! Oh well, nothing too exciting to see there these days because as Summer Flies pointed out those maternity bras give horrendous shape.

My latest finished project is a dress for Anna who got quite cranky that I had made myself a dress and am halfway through another for me (how dare I!) with nothing on the cutting table for her, so I let her pick some fabric and a pattern out of the stash.  Also with her school photos being done last week I wanted her to have a new handmade dress to wear as I have made for her for the last two years.  Unfortunately I got the dates wrong, I was a day too late and the seamstresses daughter wore a RTW dress for school photos!

Anna chose Simplicity 2907, a drop waisted shirt dress with a full skirt which I made from some cotton poplin bought from Spotlight at some sale or other last year.

The sleeve has a short piece of elastic sewn on to give it some fullness without having a puffy sleeve cap, which is a nice touch.  I left off the two breast pockets because I didn't think they would be noticeable with this fabric anyway.  Overall, I think this dress looks cute and it was easy to sew but seems rather unpractical. For little ones that sit cross legged on the ground and climb, run, skip and do the usual three year old type activities it seems a bit restrictive to have the flared part of the dress start below the hips. Mind you what would I know - it doesn't stop the twirliness of the dress, which is paramount of course!

So now hopefully I can get on with my own dress without too much complaining from my little fashion obsessive.  I'm halfway through my August Burda challenge garment, and since the October issue arrived at my place yesterday I need to get moving on it.  Although I suspect nothing will stop this little once from expecting too much - she seems to think I can just walk in my sewing room and walk straight out with something for her!