Something Special

Miss no-longer 4 (from now on I guess she's Miss 5) had a rather special birthday present earlier this year. She went on a special outing to the ballet with her grandma.  The performance was put together especially for a young audience, and she had a great time.

I'd purchased The Blake Dress by Mingo & Grace during Black Friday sales last year, and had been looking for a special occasion to sew it up. So it was decided that she needed a new dress to wear to the ballet.

The original version that I fell in love with was made in neoprene (check it out here). My version was made using scuba knit, as it was easy to source at the local Spotlight, and I've heard is a tad easier to sew (it's sometimes referred to as an apparel version of neoprene).

I was pretty excited to be able to use use my new invisible zipper foot. I still had to press the coil open (was a bit to gentle doing this at one end and managed to catch the zipper), but it made inserting the zipper a lot easier.

The bodice isn't lined, but bound at the arms and neck.  At first I tried to handstitch the binding at the armholes and neckline, catching only one layer of the fabric. But it really didn't look too good (I need to work on my handstitching evenness and patience), so I stitched the binding down with the machine. The hem was handstitched (the blind hem on the machine wasn't that blind in this fabric). Did I mention I need to work on my handstitching? It took a lot longer than I anticipated and I was literally securing the last stitch as the doorbell rang. 

  The binding fabric was rescued from the remnants bin at spotlight. While I was unpacking the bag, I held the scuba and the quilters cotton together, and found a beautiful match.

It was such lovely match that I decided to make a little bolero to go with the dress.

The pattern is the Ditty - part of Flosstyle's Jukebox collection. It was a quick little sew, and a good way to dip my toe into this amazing pattern - the options are just staggering.

I really love the idea of a cute little bolero to top off a dress.  Even in summer we're surprised by cool night, or the random day of grey skies and rain.  This is perfect for those times, when you just need something little to cover your shoulders. 

The bolero is reversible. I had the perfect fabric picked out for the other side. But little girls have their own ideas on these things, and she was quite insistent that she choose her own fabric. It's hard let to her grow up and make her own decisions. But it's got to happen at some time.