3 Little Dresses

It was whopping hot in the South last week and I am not ready for it! What a treat it was when Mom allowed Sister and I to wear our slips as nightgowns on hot summer nights when we were small!  A slip was a light weight sleeveless sort of dress that you would wear under your dress for modesty. From what I gather it was only different from a petticoat because it had a bodice and a petticoat only went under the skirt. Since modesty has all but disappeared, so slips have vanished into antiquity! Well I wanted a slip for Sparrow to be able to sleep in (and wear under thin dresses). So I found a usable pattern and made them myself! I did go a little bit further than I wanted because I made not slips but very thin dresses. I also went farther than I intended with decorating them!

I used Butterick 3772 as a pattern but I didn’t follow the pattern as far as embellishing them.

The first dress needed no embellishment. It was so sweet just how it was that I didn’t touch it. This is a close-up of the material:

I bet Mrs. Noah requested the ark be pink! I got this material for less than a dollar ( I think) from a scrap bolt at JoAnn Fabrics – bonus!

The next 3 dresses I did in assembly line style so it went really fast but there were a few “happy little accidents” (gotta love Bob Ross!).

Dress # 2 was also from a print that needed very little decoration. I did decide that hand sewing the hem was too fussy so I simply made two folds. The first fold I basted and the second I straight stitched into place. So I did need to cover the unseemly hem. Lace! I don’t think the pictures are able to show how soft and delicate this gossamer lace is in reality. It’s as if someone made lace from a spider’s web. (shivers).  This material is very silky and light but not transparent. It’s the same as the gingham that you’ll see later.

   Dress # 3 might just as well be the gingham since I‘ve already mentioned it. This one needed eyelet lace. Pink gingham and eyelet lace just sit next to one another like old friends.

   If you look very closely you can see minute holes in the fabric, maybe that can give you a better feel for the type of material that these are. I’m sorry that I didn’t remember to look when it was purchased. I bought  these two fabrics  from Wal-mart at $1/yard.

   I had never done Chicken Scratch embroidery before and really enjoyed doing it! It worked up very quickly and for the most part I didn’t need to look at the pattern because it’s repeating! It was very easy on my eyes after doing so much needle painting lately. I found the pattern for free.

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

   This last dress is regular quilting grade cotton. Calico outside the USA. It’s hard to tell here but with the back being a print and the front being white it gives the illusion of an apron. This was one of those “happy little accidents”. I cut out the back of the dress and then realized that I had made a bonnet out of the material and now I didn’t have enough to complete the dress. So, I grabbed some plain white and just kept going.

(Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without -right?).

As it was I had plenty left over to make the little pockets and I know Sparrow will love having a place to put her treasures.

*note to self: check pockets before washing!!*

  Eyelet seemed to want to go on this one too, so it went on the hem and pockets. The little bird I found as clip art and it seemed to want to live on this dress with the eyelet. It’s backstitched except for the eye and wing. The eye is satin stitched and the wing is trellis stitched.

May your night be full of rest and your tomorrow be blessed.