Popover Maxi Dress

Piper loves to wrap a blanket or towel around herself to make a long "dress."  It wouldn't be unusual to come to our house and see one clothes pinned to her.  I'm not sure what it is about or why she likes it, but I kind of remember doing the same thing when I was little.  Since she's a big fan of the long dress she's started to ask for me to make her one.  I caved the other day and did it.

Oliver + S Popover Dress

I used the same Oliver + S Popover dress I have used many times before.  I had looked online and found a couple tutorials for making cute toddler maxi dresses but decided to take the easy route.  To make it a maxi dress I added 3" to the bottom of the pattern I already had cut and used previously, then added a 4" ruffle to the bottom.  The fabric is a super light weight swiss dot that I got at Hancock Fabrics about a month ago.  It's a nice summery dress.

I will be honest and say, at first I wasn't thrilled with it.  On the mannequin it just looks a little ho-hum.  I also wasn't so sure if Piper would like it.  I had it all finished except to hem the ruffle but wanted to try it on her so I made it the right length.  She wouldn't take it off and ended up wearing it to WalMart unfinished.  I finished it yesterday morning and she wore it to Zachary's soccer game in the afternoon (which his team won 4-2).  I still wasn't sure if Piper would like it in the long term because she's a rough and tumble kid.  She likes to climb and run and jump, if she wasn't able to do those things the dress would have been coming off.  She climbed, she ran, she jumped just fine and wore it all day.  She even got a few compliments on how cute it was.  I do agree, it was super cute on, she looked so easy and breezy.

On a side note, I love the picture with the water pump for nostalgic reasons.  We went to a Ma 'n Pa grocery store near our house after the game for ice cream and this pump is outside the store.  It made me smile because my grandparents lived on a farm when I was growing up.  They had a water pump outside, but theirs was a working pump.  I remember playing w/ that pump and better yet getting nice cold drinks from the pump as a kid. Too bad this one wasn't working.  It was fun to see and nice to bring up some childhood memories.