As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, my latest Japanese book purchase inspired me to actually make something (instead of just sitting around thinking about what I COULD make), except from a book that I picked up almost a year ago, Basics for Girls (I haven't made anything from that fabric in the picture yet, but have often thought about it, see how that works?). I feel essentially the same way about it as I did in my original post, which is to say that the patterns are, yes, basic, but compelling, also "basic" isn't a terrible quality when you are trying to make something according to instructions that you cannot actually read.
I love, love this dress. I love how smocky it is, I think the proportions are great, it's adorable over jeans & a long-sleeve tee, I love the raspberry striped seersucker I used to make it. I love the fit of the yoke & the binding around the neck & arms. I love the design of the pockets, though they're too small to be that useful & I was clumsy with them. Big armholes definitely make it an overdress, but since we are, I learned today, having colder weather than SIBERIA here in Seattle, I'm not too worried about her suddenly being unable to wear an undershirt without melting. (Last week I was in the fabric store picking up some this & that for summer clothes, the cutter made the usual small-talk comment about "boy, you'll be busy" & I said something equally small-talky about having to get the sundresses made before it gets hot, & she stopped, looked at me, & said "It's JUNE and you're wearing a DOWN JACKET. I don't think you have to rush.")
My girl thinks this dress is pretty cute, though initially refused to wear it pre-embellishment, "please can you put something on it, you know, like when you do drawing with thread?" Then she sent it back again to have the heart filled in, FINE, & in the interim I made the huge mistake of making the same dress out of a floral fabric, & so her initial refusal has been followed by a grudging acknowledgement that yes, the heart is awesome & maybe she'll wear it sometimes, but it just isn't as cute as the flower one because it doesn't have as much stuff on it. Stripes, it turns out, do not count as stuff. (Too basic, right?)
Here we have the right amount of stuff. This one, she wanted to wear two days in a row, the other one she can barely stand to try on for two seconds. "Just try it on! Let's see how it fits!" I say, cheerfully, hoping that she'll get distracted by something sparkly before she remembers to rip those boring, boring stripes off of her body.
No luck so far.