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.

Library Story Time

Ooops,  I forgot to hit publish yesterday I guess, so here goes for today.

Today is Wednesday and that means one thing, it's library day.  This weeks theme was birds.  There are a lot of bird fabrics on the market, but not a lot of cute bird fabrics.  Or so, I thought until I came across this fabric from Aneela Hoey:

Aneela Hoey Sew Stitchy

Those little birdies are adorable.  I just didn't know what to do with it.  I decided to go with one of my favorite stand-bys, the Oliver + S Popover Sundress.  

Oliver + S Popover Sundress

Here are the reasons I love this dress:

1) It's a free pattern for a cute dress

2) It's quick and easy to put together (Zachary said he'd like to try to make one)

3) I love a pillowcase dress on a little girl, this has a similar simplicity and style

4) Piper likes to wear them, so it must be comfortable.

I have made several Popover sundresses in the past.  I haven't even blogged about all of them.  I change things up from time to time if I am feeling ambitious.  This time I added a gathered top and some lace around the bottom.

I do wish I had made the ties a little longer.  I try to keep them short or Piper unties the top all day long but I think I went a little too short this time.  Trust me, there will be more Popover dresses in our future because I do love sewing this one up.  And, look how cute it is on:

Library Wednesday

It's Wednesday and that can only mean one thing.  It's the one day a week lately I take the time to sit down and tell you what's happening in our house.  Let's get to the important stuff first.  Today was library day and today's theme was, of course, Valentine's Day.

My original plan for today's outfit was an Oliver + S Jump Rope dress:

The fabric I was going to use, was Riley Blake's Indian Summer Hearts in Pink:

The whole dress was going to be inspired a dress I saw on Pinterest here.

Somewhere around Thursday afternoon last week it dawned on me that Valentine's Day was only a week away and I hadn't sewed a single stitch on any garment yet.  It also dawned on me that I had a lot to do over the weekend and just didn't have time to sew up a Jump Rope dress.  I had to move on to Plan B as much as it pained me.  I really only had Thursday evening to sew something up and the quickest dress to put together is the Oliver + S Popover Sundress.  So, that's what we ended up with.

Oliver + S Popover Sundress

I tried to make it a little more Valentine's by adding heart appliqués.

The fabric from the dress came from a dress that was in a stack of UFO's (un-finished objects).  I adore the colorful hearts and had every intention of finishing the other dress.  The only problem is that I started in over a year ago and the likelihood that it still fit was slim.  So, at least I was able to repurpose the cute heart fabric into a project that did fit (and I finished).  

I thought the dress needed just a little something extra, and what better to add some fun to a dress than ric-rac.  I added a little green ric-rac under the front yoke:

(My mannequin is extra chesty and makes the top of the dress pull funny)

I also added a little ric-rac around the hem.

I have never done rid-rac around a hem before.  Here's a little trick that made it work.  Iron the hem (in this case I did a 1" hem), unfold the ironed line and use that as a guide to pin on the ric-rac.  I used a little Dritz Wonder Tape to hold the ric-rac in place instead of pin and it made it a little easier to sew on.  (Wonder Tape is great anytime you want to add embellishments, I use it all the time!)  Sew the ric-rac down the center, then refold the hem and finish.  Easy, peasy, extra-cheesy!

Doesn't Piper look great?

(I admit, the styling of the entire outfit is a little weird but that happens when you are working with a 3 year old!).

The other dress will happen, just not this week.

In other news, this past weekend Zachary performed with the Tri-County Honors Choir.  It was a lovely concert.  I was so proud of him.  I think I smiled through the entire concert.  We didn't take any pictures, because pictures of a choral concert seem a little silly.  We did order a concert DVD so we will be able to enjoy the performances again and again.  ;)

Dress Up Days / Oliver + S Popover Sun Dress

Last week when Piper and I were at The Material Girls Quilt Shop (my new favorite store) we picked up a few extra things.  We originally went for fabric to make the candy corn dress, but who can leave a fabric store with just the items you went to the store to purchase?

In my browsing, I came across the Dress Up Days line by Riley Blake.  I had admired this fabric online but it was so much cuter in person.  So, I had to have some.  In addition there was a doll panel to make a doll and 3 dresses.  So, we needed that too.

I made the doll last week.

She was a big hit.  I haven't made the dresses yet, but I'm working on it.  I was inspired by one of the dresses (top right on the panel) for the doll to make a dress for Piper that would be similar.  I came up with this:

Oliver + S Popover Dress

I do so love making this pattern.  It's easy, quick and the perfect dress for summer.  Of course since our summer is coming to a close shortly, I'm thinking the colors will translate to fall well and the dress will still look cute with a sweater or a shirt underneath.

Based on the inspiration dress, I added piping under the yoke:

Pockets:

And a hem band with piping:

I also made Piper's other doll a dress to match.  The Popover pattern comes with a doll size dress pattern , so why not.  I had been meaning to do so all summer anyway.  Dollie won't mind if it's winter and she's wearing a sundress.

I just need to get the Dress Up Days doll dressed finished and we'll have a complete set of cute dresses. I love this fabric.  The colors are fun.  Piper picked the purple version because she's a purple loving girl.  I can't wait to see what else I can make with it.