The Birthday Dress and Shrug

I’ll start with way too many photos, and then talk about the dress and little shrug I made for Larkspur’s birthday.  I could narrate as I go, but I won’t.  See if you can figure out the “story” without me helping.

Please disregard my front porch, it’s still in progress and has hosted wood chopping activities for the past few months, not to mention bikes, “treasures,” and a host of other unsightly items.  Flagstone is on the to do list after the pantry and garden are finished.  And last thing: please understand that my boys are almost always dressed in bad clothes.  What can I say?  They dress themselves and play outside most of the time.  I clean them up for Sunday Mass, and that is what matters.

Okay, so the truth is that I wanted to take pictures of Larkspur and she just kept running from me.  Keats was trying to help.  I realize there isn’t a picture of the front of the bodice.  The picture in her birthday post was the best I got.

The dress is the dress with quilted bodice from Carefree Clothes for Girls.  I have been wanting to make it for some time.  In fact, it is the reason I bought the book.  That being said, the dress was tricky.  This book is not for the beginner in my opinion.  Because I have made a few dresses with bodices I survived, but just barely.  I made a few changes that I thought good and everything worked out.  The outer fabric is double cotton gauze from Heather Ross’s Far Far Away line (I was inspired by this sweet little dress.)  The contrasting fabric (brown) is cotton gauze that I bought years ago on clearance at JoAnne before I even knew how to sew.  The look of the dress is intentionally shabby, so edges aren’t hemmed.  I sort of love/hate this.  I will just cut the strings as they begin to hang.  I like the frayed look, just not the long hangy downy strings.

Okay, the shrug:  It’s the Little Girl’s Shrug from Knitting Pure & Simple.  It was super easy and quick, but it ended up a bit small.  I was aiming for 3/4 length sleeves, and didn’t quite make it.  That’s okay.  I also wish it was a bit longer, but that’s okay too, right?  I made a couple of changes to the original pattern, and the details are on my Ravelry page HERE.  And hey, if we aren’t friends on Ravelry yet, please befriend me!  I don’t have time to search for new patterns to try, and get almost all of my ideas from looking at other people’s projects.  Isn’t it so fun to look at other people’s projects?  Or is that just me…