Sewing: Easter Dresses, 2010

I finished the girls' Easter dresses today, but they didn't wear them today. We didn't have church so I'll have to wait a week to see them in their Easter finery. It felt like I had to finish them by the holiday anyway. I love the tradition of a new Easter dress and my mother always made mine, so now I'm doing the same for my girls.

I thought about having them put them on and carrying their Easter baskets around for a photo opp, but since we have snow outside... Next Sunday will be a better day for that I hope.

I love the way these turned out, especially Scarlett's sleeveless dress. I can't get enough of these high yoke styles and I love the bow.

I made her a little lavendar jacket to wear over the dress. I thought the stripes might overwhelm her, and typically Easter is not warm enough to go sleeveless.

The dress and jacket pattern is Simplicity 2668. I wish it came in a wider range of sizes--I think it's a darling pattern and would be cute older girls.

Audrey's jacket is a classic look and I love the purple buttons. They were the last I was considering at the store but I think they work perfectly.

It's funny, I had in mind some restrained, classic linen sheath dresses and a-line jackets for Easter this year (more in the tradition of last year's Easter dresses, which were pretty traditional looking), but I couldn't find a linen color that was right and then I found this stripe, which I think is so cheery and fun. I love the red and purple together and it gave me an excuse to make a dress for Audrey in her favorite color: purple. I went with an orchid purple, rather than the more subdued grey-purple stripe, because it brightened the ensemble. The stripe may also, however, be the type of fabric one imagines when hearing the phrase, "she looked like an Easter egg," but I think little girls can pull it off. We'll see next week anyway!

Both Audrey's jacket and dress are from Simplicity pattern 3897 (which doesn't seem to be available retail anymore). Found the pretty solid cotton at my local quilt store, Elaine's. The fabulous stripe is another one of my finds from Home Fabrics--love that store! Unfortunately it has nothing printed on the selvedge and there weren't any care instructions though it takes a pretty hot iron, so maybe it's cotton. I guess I'll dry clean...