Sunday, May 3, 2009

Terminal Cuteness

A friend (and former co-worker) of mine recently had a baby. Well, his wife had the baby but he's acting like he did! Even though he's no longer at the firm, we keep in touch and I promised him when the baby was born thatI would make her a little something. I waited until after the birth to start because even though they were expecting a girl, I wanted to be certain before I made something girly.

When I told him that something would be coming his way soon, he said that if I hadn't started yet, could I make it something in a slightly larger size because "they have about 3,000 variations of pink in infant to 3 months." Not a problem - the one baby girl pattern (Burda 9680) I have is an older Burda, with two dress variations, a long sleeve with a straight hem and a sleeveless pinafore with a scalloped hem. I loved the hem scallops and the sleeve variation would depend on how much fabric I had.

The other night I finally got around to starting. Since none of the fabrics in my stash are really baby-type fabric, I thought I was going to have to buy something, but then I started digging through my bags of thrift-store purchases and clothes that I had given up wearing and came up with something perfect. Not only is it a recycling project, but the fabric is all the softer for little Madeleine because I've washed and worn it for years.

Once upon a time it was a sundress from April Cornell, a vaguely Liberty-ish floral in lavender and pale blue. (See, Kevin, NOT pink!). It's hard to see in the photos, but the dress front was tiny pintucks. I laid out my pattern pieces and found out that I could take advantage of the pintucks for the front of the baby dress. Additionally, I could re-use the button back of the dress rather than inserting the zipper that Burda recommended. A zipper in a baby dress? Really?

There was plenty of skirt fabric to make the scalloped skirt pieces, and enough left to put aside for contrast cuffs and collar band for a shirt for Mario one of these days.

For the trim, I dug deep into the trim stash - several plastic tubs of assorted frilly that I've been accumulating for decades - and came up with the lace for the them and the cotton trim for the neckline, waist and the tops of the hem scallops.

This project literally took me 2 hours from start to finish and came completely from stash. Not only is it cute, but it's environmentally friendly.

13 comments:

Lori said...

Very cute baby girl outfit. As a mother to 4 girls, I can so appreciate an outfit that isn't pink!

goodworks1 said...

Definitely cute. I'd love a dress like this myself, at 58... lol

Little Hunting Creek said...

This is very pretty and I love that it is not pink.

Nancy K said...

Why is it that everyone thinks that girls need to wear pink? Much better choice and I applaud your eco friendly reuse. Great little dress.

Vildy said...

I think that's the prettiest baby dress I've ever seen.

Sherril said...

Wow what an expensive looking free dress. Lucky baby!

gwensews said...

Sweet dress. I'm sure it will be well received.

Elaray said...

Very cute. Sewing little girl dresses is fun. I'm sure you'll be doing more.

Gretchen the Household Deity said...

That is adorable! I like that it's not pink.

Rose said...

What a cute dress! Great use of recyling fabric!!

Kitty Couture said...

It's super cute! Lucky parents and baby.

Kat said...

Oh, that's SO cute! They'll love it.

Tany said...

It's ADORABLE!!