Jim has been asking me to make Juniper a chambray dress for months. I'd forgotten about that, though, when I set out on a Saturday afternoon with Juniper to go fabric shopping for her Easter dress. I knew I wanted to make her an oliver + s jump rope dress, and I was imagining it in a muted solid or gentle stripe. Of course, when we got to the fabric store, she was captivated by the bold Easter prints: giant rabbits, pastel eggs, and bright yellow chicks. The half an hour that we spent looking at fabric was more intense and stressful than any day I've spent in the office. My first argument against the Easter-themed-prints was that I wanted her dress to be something she could wear all summer. I thought this logic was totally sound, but she saw through it, and started dramatically accusing me of hating everything she loved. We went around and around every bolt of fabric in the store and I thought we'd never agree. I wanted her to be happy with the dress, but there was no way I was going to spend hours making a dress out of a fabric featuring poorly drawn bunnies carrying Easter baskets in their paws.
And then I remembered: this child loves to please her father, even if she could give a hoot about my snobbish tastes. I told her that Jim (who has been wearing a lot of chambray work shirts these days) wanted her to have a dress to match his shirts (which he did). She was sold. I told her she could pick out any fabric in the entire store for the pockets of the dress, and she carefully selected a great Liberty of London print. In fact, I'm not sure that I could have picked out a better coordinating fabric if I'd done it myself.
The best part about the chambray is that was also perfect for the overalls I wanted to make Gram. You'd think I would have figured this all out before we set foot in the store, but that's just not how things work around here. And in the end, Juniper felt like she had a role in designing her dress, so I suppose the agonizing thirty-minutes in-store were worth it in the end.
Of course, it helped that I ended up buying a yard of the baby chick fabric. I'm a sucker. I made it into a bag for her to put her eggs in at the Georgia Street Community Garden's Easter Egg Hunt.
About Gram's outfit: I didn't use a pattern, and just made him a pair of pants the way I usually do, and added a bib and suspenders. I eyeballed the whole thing, and it all came together in one night. Pretty easy, and goes well with his favorite hat.
It was nice to sew some clothes again; I've been so into knitting I've been neglecting the sewing machine, and it was good to get back behind it before I sew the kids' Dutch costumes for Tulip Time this year (!).
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