the perfect little dress

(Thin~higher wale~cream corduroy with dark red piping)

click photo above to see detail

Why does the fashion industry insist on making little girls grow up so fast?  Classic girls clothes are so hard to find.  I have contemplated starting my own clothing line.~ my sister in law and I actually did design clothes for a little while and sold them in boutiques.  However, we didn't feel that the time was right to get into



manufacturing, so we started pursuing other interests instead.  Maybe someday...

Anyway, a few years ago while looking for a classic holiday dress for my daughter, I found a wonderful designer named Kayce Hughes who designs classic children's clothing here. (Pears + Bears)

I love her party dresses, but at $90+ for a dress, I decided to try to have something sewn for my daughter for much less.  While shopping at Walmart a few years ago, I found an EASY Alice in Wonderland Halloween costume sewing pattern for $1.99.

After examining it, I noticed that if you didn't make the apron, and took out the interfacing in the collar, it looked just like the Pears + Bears classic party dress (back then they didn't have the tie around the waist)!

I can sew, but I don't really enjoy it.  Instead, I hired my local seamstress to make my own version of the party dress for my daughter and to hem it to the longer length that I like.  She only charged me $20, and my fabric and piping only came to about $10.  So for about $40 I had the most beautiful holiday dress made for my daughter.  I chose a tiny wale chocolate brown corduroy fabric with baby blue piping around the collar! (I cannot for the life of me find a photo of it.  But trust me, it was adorable).  She wore that dress all fall/winter long!

The next year I bought the same pattern again, in the next size up and had the cream corduroy one made with the cranberry red piping that you see in the photo above.  With dark red ribbons in her hair, this unique "Christmas" dress was classic and was worn all winter long.  It even looked cute for Valentines Day!
I didn't see the pattern this year, but I'm sure you can find something similar like this one.  Or just look through the easy dress patterns at the fabric store.   (JoAnn's usually has their patterns and fabric on sale, or you can get on their mailing list for coupons)  I never pay full price for a pattern or fabric.
I think a dark red dress with cream piping would be adorable for the holidays also.

My daughter has outgrown the pattern now, but I wanted something similar for her recent baptism.  So I found an easy pattern much like it in my "pattern stash"... told the seamstress to take off the peter pan collar and puffy sleeves...and add length to the dress.  Here is a $25 version of the original concept!  I hope my daughter will decide to have her daughter baptized in the same simple beautiful dress. (and then for it to be passed down to her granddaughters)

Linking to
The Shabby Chic Cottage
All things heart and home
 tatertots and jello
centsational girl