A small stack of summery fabric arrived in the mail last week. The happy prints practically begged to be turned into sundresses for Miss P. I sorted through my patterns, and decided to use a McCalls dress I had made for Miss E when she was just a little thing. Miss P is a big girl and it can be hard to decide what size to make for her. I didn’t want chance making the wrong size, so I dug through the storage shed until I came upon the tub of Miss E’s baby clothes.
These are the dresses I made for Miss E. In fact, the little orange one is the very first dress I ever made.
Pulling those baby dresses from that tub of baby clothes brought back so many good memories of sewing for my girl. I tackled that first dress with more determination than skill. After many hours, lots of seam ripping, and one burst of frustrated tears… I had made a dress. The very next week I made the red and turquoise dress with a few less ripped seams, and amazingly, not a tear was shed.
I will admit I was so proud of that dress and I loved seeing her run around in it.
Those two sundresses were riddled with mistakes! Sloppy armholes, wobbly seams, misshapen neckline… but oh how I loved them! I was even too scared to make real buttonholes so I used snaps instead. On the orange dress I even managed to sew the neckline on backwards!
So, 3-1/2 years later I made another for Miss P. The pattern I used is McCalls M5830.
Man I love this pattern but it does not love me back. That’s a little dramatic. It’s really a breezy little pattern, except for the part were you attach the neckline to the bodice. The instructions seem to be describing this terribly clever way of sewing the neckline on wrong -side-out. Then when you turn it, everything is magically and suddenly right-side-out, with no exposed seams. I could never figure it out. Even my husband, who is my go-to pattern interpreter, couldn’t decode it for me. He suggested making a practice dress but ain’t nobody got time for that. So I ended up attaching the neckline in my own clumsy way… but it got the job done.
Isn’t that strawberry fabric delightful? I love the little kick-pleat in the front too.
I hand-stitched her pet name to the bottom of the dress.
While I was at it I decide to make another.
And look… real buttonholes! I know… I’m a big girl… yes I am.
Can we just talk for a minute about how much I love this print? I love it a lot. All those happy little houses and funky little birds, how could I resist?!
This one is going to look so sweet with her little red shoes.
Oh, one more thing I should mention; the sizes on this pattern are a bit vague. The sizes are listed as newborn, small, medium, and large, with no measurements to go with them. After sewing this pattern in several sizes, I would say the pattern comes in sizes newborn- 18 months. I made Miss P the 18 month because I want it to fit her this summer.
It was fun to see how my sewing skills had improved over the last 3 years. Fun to add a few more homemade dresses to the stack, and I’m looking forward to seeing Miss P toddle around in her summer dresses.