Roses are Red

It's the final week for season 16 at Project Run and Play, and the theme is "Signature Style." In the outfit I made, I did my best to keep both my style and my daughter's in mind.

Long ago, I learned to sew from my mother. As she would sew her projects, I would sit in the sewing room and play with the fabrics and ribbon while dreaming about what I wanted to make. As I grew older, she and I sewed my formal dresses for dances at school. I loved the beautiful fabric and was always excited to wear a one-of-a-kind gown she and I made together. When I was in high school, I decided I wanted to sew handbags, and drafted my own patterns for them. I even had a (very) small business for a little while taking custom orders from fellow students and teachers. Because of this, I feel that my "signature style" always comes back to dresses and handbags. 

For the dress, I used the Boundless Youth dress pattern from Patterns for Pirates. I have now made three dresses from this pattern, and both my daughter and I love each of them. I let her choose the fabric as I was shopping online at Cali Fabrics, and she chose a beautiful rose double brushed poly spandex knit. She loves all flowers, but especially roses. She also loves bows, ruffles, and accessories, so I knew I had to add some of those, too! I used a tutorial from The Ribbon Retreat to make felt rolled flowers. I made one into a rose clip for her hair, and some more for the handbag. 


Even though it is currently summer, my daughter usually wants to wear a sweater when we go to church or restaurants because the air conditioning is so cold. This dark green knit fabric was in my stash, and I thought it went well with the dress. I used the bodice and sleeve patterns from the Boundless dress as a guide, and lengthened it a few inches at the bottom and added ruffles to both the sleeves and the bottom. I cut down the center of both the front outer and lining fabric, so it could open like a cardigan, and added a ribbon to each side to tie it closed with a cute little bow.


Naturally, the handbag is self-drafted by me. I used a natural sand colored denim from my stash for the outside fabric, and the same ribbon as the cardigan tie for the straps.


I used the very small remnants of leftover rose double brushed poly for the lining. 


Since this dress has the same pattern piece for the front and back bodice, I cut the fabric for the front to have a large rose in the center. That way my daughter can tell which side is the front when she puts it on.


She loves all the roses!


All the ruffles make the outfit fancy and girly for her, and she loves how breezy it is. 


And the handbag is the perfect size for her little unicorn-friend to ride along. 


She and I both love how this outfit turned out, and I'll probably be making more dresses like this. 

I may have even bought the adult version of the dress for myself...
...and might be thinking about mommy-daughter dresses...


-Bridget :)

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