In the Garden with Alice

Maryland was hit with a bizarrely warm February. It's been wonderful to see the sunshine and not have to drag coats everywhere- but it sure has me worried about the heat this summer might bring- and the bugs! 

We took advantage of one warm Sunday to walk the grounds at Brookside Gardens. I asked Cordelia if I could take some pictures of her in the new dress I made while we were on our walk and she freaked out- she has been very against pictures these days and it kinda kills me!

So I left the big camera at home, but once she caught me snapping a cell phone photo of her she relented and seemed to get into it! I can't keep up with her sometimes! I normally shy away from cell phone photos on the blog, but that might have to change because I never want to make her feel like getting new dresses from Mama is a chore.

  Now, about the dress. The pattern is another great one from Bella Sunshine Designs- I swear I don't work for her, I just adore her patterns. This is the Alice pleated dress in a size seven, with about two inches added to the hem. I saw snippets of this dress when it was in testing and absolutely fell in love with the peter pan collar.  There is an option in this pattern to include bias binding on the collar that I am very excited to try. 

Besides the awesome peter pan collar the dress has really interesting cap sleeves that can be done in a coordinating print - and the way they are sewn in makes sewing kids sleeves super easy. Also the Alice features a pleated skirt which is different from what I normally sew for her. 

Normally I talk about how easy these patterns are to sew up, but this is not a beginner pattern, you want to be familiar with sewing and take your time. The instructions are well written and clear, but there are a lot of details and steps to this dress. The entire dress is lined- sleeves, bodice, skirt- the whole thing, and it has an invisible zipper. I actually skipped the invisible zipper and used a regular zipper because that's what I had on hand, it doesn't look nearly as great as the dresses in the tester pictures but I was ok with that. 

Cordelia was very involved with this dress, I showed her the skirt fabric and she said she loved it, I showed her the pattern for the dress and she was on board, she helped pick the coordinating polka dot fabrics, but in the end I wonder if it doesn't match her personality. She said she loves it, and it fits perfect, but it hasn't been a go to and I really think it's because it's just too sweet.

I know that might not make sense, because what five year old really has a personal style- but I honestly think Cordelia does and I don't think we nailed it with this dress. So I love this pattern, but I think my next one I might go a little funkier with my fabric choice!