Fancy Dress for Clementine
Clementine's Pink Daisy Bow Dress
Clementine (the other day): “Mom, I’m not a Fancy Girl.”
Me: “What’s a Fancy Girl?”
C: “Well, you know, there are some girls at school who always wear the fancy clothes, like dresses with tights, and fancy shoes, and they like pink and purple and stuff?”
Me (in my head): “There are kids who go to elementary school in tights?”
Me (outloud): “Oh, right. So that’s not you? What kind of girl are you then?”
C: “Well, I’m like, a Cool Girl.”
Me: “Ahhh. What’s a Cool Girl?”
C: “Well, you know how I like video games? And I like blue and aqua and other colors, not just pink and purple?”
Me: “Yeah. I love that about you.”
C: “So, that’s like, a Cool Girl. You know that pink dress you made me for Easter, with the bow and the flowers?”
Me: “Yeah?”
C: “That’s what a Fancy Girl wears.”
Me (laughing): “OK. Got it. Wait! There are blue flowers on it??”
C: (rolls eyes)
Clementine's Pink Daisy Bow Dress
Yes, it’s pink and it’s pretty fancy, but she wore it for Easter, and even though she likes blue better, I happen to know she still wears a lot of pink. So I’m not going to write this dress off yet. But even if she never wears it again, I pretty much died of cute when she put it on the first time and danced around like a fairy. I’ll just hold that memory in my heart while I sew her a pair of blue skater punk shorts this summer, right?
Clementine's Pink Daisy Bow Dress
Clementine's Pink Daisy Bow Dress
Clementine's Pink Daisy Bow Dress
Clementine's Pink Daisy Bow Dress
But she’s definitely less “this:”
Clementine's Geranium with Bow
And more “this:”
Clementine's Geranium with Bow
My weird little monster.
Clementine's Geranium with Bow
Fabric: Cotton lawn by Cotton + Steel, designed by Melody Miller
Patterns: Geranium Dress + Geranium Expansion Pack (zipper, bow, and gathered elbow-length sleeve). I used the selvage-to-selvage width of this fabric for the skirt, resulting in a fuller skirt.
PS. This dress gave me a chance to try putting the zipper together with the sleeves (these are the gathered elbow-length sleeves) from the Geranium Expansion Pack. I was v. pleased at how this turned out; I’ve never been a big zipper fan — quick and easy is my personal sewing motto, and surprise! zippers don’t usually fall under that category — but I’m really in love with how this looks. More info on the zipper can be found in the GXP zipper post.