Sewing: Ruffled Chemise for Tess

Sometimes, or very often, one thing leads to another. I was working on a pattern design for Tess' first Easter dress, an a-line chemise with a ruffle down the front and short slightly full sleeves, when I thought it would be equally darling sleeveless. And then I thought it would be fun to have a little dress for Tess to wear with a sweater I'm working on for her. So I looked through my fabric stash and picked up this floral voile, which I have used before, and love! It is perfect for wanting spring! And it works with the yarn for the sweater! And, Audrey and Scarlett can likely still wear their dresses made with this voile, which means potential for a very cute sister portrait if I have it all ready to take on our trip in April!

So Easter dress aside and I sewed a sleeveless version of the Ruffled Chemise for Tess. I love it! This is sometimes the reason for not working more quickly down the list. I keep inserting serendipitous projects! But they are impossible to resist.

So Tess now has a floral dress. Her favorite thing about it seems to be that the ruffle is near enough to her mouth for her to chew on, which wasn't intended. But she looks pretty cute in it all the same.

I made this dress a bit longer than many of the patterns and purchased dresses because it seems so often I put her in a little dress and it works more like a shirt, never falling below her hips. I wanted this to hit somewhere below her knees, which it does, but since her legs are in the air most of the time there is still plenty of opportunity to show off a cute diaper cover. That is something I'm planning for with the Easter dress version of this.

This Ruffled Chemise is lined, which is a necessity anyway with the voile, but also makes for nice finishing. I chose buttons without shanks since Tess is on her back so often, and found these cute ones with a little flower silhouette. I had actually purchased these same buttons a few months ago, in white, for some future project just because they are so cute.

It's hard to believe it's snowing outside my window, but it is. Ah well, on to the Easter dress!

You can find this pattern in my shop.