Pink Daisies and Polka Dots

When I saw this, admittedly very odd, dress at the Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter Thrift Store, I was both horrified and intrigued. I mean, it really is peculiar.

I knew it would be a great little girl dress. In fact, I believe one of my sisters had a dress made from a very similar fabric back in the '60's.

I took the dress apart. The construction was simple, but weird- Imagine folding a piece of 8.5 by 11 paper, and drawing a t-shirt shape on one half. Cut the bottom of the arms, the sides of the shirt and the bottom off, but don't cut the fold. Cut a round hole in the middle of the fold for the head, and then sew a little angle across the top, wider at the edge and getting smaller as you go ALMOST to the cut out circle, to make the angle at the top of the arms. The seam at the top of the arms didn't go all the way to the neck, which was bound by a piece of hem tape. Then there was a tie for the back that brought the sides of the dress in so it had a little more shape. Strange. It was, however, easy to take apart, just rip up the side seams.

I didn't want the dress to be entirely daisies, and I wasn't sure what else to put with it. I went through my fabric stash to see if I had anything I could pair with it. I had a black and white gingham, and the same gingham I had overdyed pink, but somehow I didn't like them.

The daisies had a green edge, and I tried to find something in that color, but was unsuccessful.
I eventually decided on a cotton print- pink with black polkadots, and another black with pink polka dots.

I used a dress design similar to the jumper from the Mickey Mouse dress, except I re-engineered the skirt to have pleats across the front. I used the daisy print as the skirt, and the polka-dots as the top. There was so much of the daisy print that I made 2 little dresses- in sort of mirror images- one used the black for the outside and was lined with the pink, the other was the reverse.



The buttons were fun- Shrinky Dink plastic again. I scanned the daisy fabric, and then used Photoshop to add black polka dots, so the buttons had an element of each fabric. I printed out four of them on the ink-jet printer.

Before baking

During baking

After baking. A couple coats of clear nail polish to seal them and make them shiny, and they were stitched onto of concealed snaps.
I punched holes in the buttons before shrinking, but the shrinking process made them close up. Chuck used his Dremel to drill out new holes so I could sew the buttons on.

When trimming the seams of this one, I stupidly cut a hole in the lining fabric. I repaired it and it didn't look TOO bad...

The "Big Girl" dresses were so cute I decided to make a "Little Girl" outfit as well. I made a onesie of the black polka dots, lined it with the light pink, and made a skirt of the daisies. The skirt is ruffled with the polka dot fabrics, and has an elastic drawstring
And here are the girls wearing their new outfits. Sadly, Granddaughter #2 is growing like a weeds, and is too big for the onesie, but the skirt is still cute.




I think she's dancing here-

The skirt is not as cute as the baby, but cute.


Granddaughter #1 in her dress. She's cuter than the dress, too. I kept the pink polkadot dress here- I haven't decided what to do with it. Sell it? Give it away? Stay tuned. AND there's still enough fabric for a hat or two...