Bringing Back An Old Favorite

Today when we were out taking pictures Abby actually asked if she could wear her favorite dress and take pictures in that. I, of course was thrilled and anxious to see which of her gazillion dresses she thought of as her favorites. We went up into her closet to sift through the jungle of clothes and I kept pulling out ones I thought might be her favorite. Finally she found the one she had in mind, and much to my surprise it was my all time favorite too. It's one I made for her last year and I absolutely adore it. Her face just lit up when she saw it and she said "I think my silver slippers and pearls would go well with this mommy!" I replied with " Exactly what I would have picked." She is really becoming quite good at knowing what goes well with what which is pretty impressive for a 5 year old in my opinion. Sadly, the dress is getting rather snug on her and a bit shorter than it was last year, but we managed to stuff her into it for one last time. Which I was thrilled about as I was not very happy with the photos I had taken of her in it last year when I made it.

There is a fun story that goes with this dress. I was inspired by a dress I saw at one of my favorite on-line boutiques. When I saw the dress it was love at first sight...that is, until I saw the price...ouch. If I remember correctly it was in the $350.00-$400.00 range. Of course I looked at the dress and thought I wonder if I could pull off a similar dress and I wonder if I could do it for next to nothing. I love these little challenges I impose on myself, it keeps sewing fun and interesting. I found the perfect fabric on the sale table, a stunning icy steel blue linen. Used vintage lace and some white fabric and tulle (for the petticoat) that I already had. I dug through my buttons to find to silver ones, vintage of course and bought matching blue thread. I think my total cost for this dress was about $11.00! Quite a difference from the original, and mine is darn close to the original too!