Stitch, Stitch

While it's the tiniest bit terrible to say, I have to admit that one of the first things I was excited about when I found out Evelyn was a girl was that I finally had someone to sew for. Yes, yes, you can sew for a boy. And I have, I still do. There's a piece of pirate flag fabric destined to be a tie sitting on my work chest right now and I'm on the lookout for some Hawaiian fabric for a requested shirt. But the truth is that girls are just a little more fun to sew for, at least for me. There's nothing quite as satisfying as making a twirly little dress and then seeing it worn to shreds because she loves it so much.

My standby is the Sewbaby dress. It's simple, fast, takes minimal fabric and is still probably the best summer dress ever. This summers will be Evelyn's third or forth incarnation of the same pattern. But since I tend to get bored doing the same thing again and again, especially when it comes to sewing, I've been on the lookout for a new dress pattern. Last fall I had a run in with a commercial pattern that made me pull my hair out and eventually strike out on my own, patternless, to finish the project. It was so poorly written, and so badly sized that I couldn't even think about flipping through the pattern books when the warm weather came around. Thank goodness for Google.

After a lot of browsing and reading in which I became way too obsessed with sewing patterns for preschool girls, I settled on something from Oliver + S, anything from Oliver + S. In fact, it took all my restraint not to order all the dress patterns they had plus the raincoat/peacoat pattern. Actually, I'm still fantasizing about that coat. I wish it came in grownup girl sizes as well. Hummm...

But back to the dress. Will's mom kindly went to a fabric store in Dallas where the patterns were sold and sent back the Ice Cream Dress with Will during his visit. She also, incidentally, sent back flower fabric for the dress and some really cute cutlery patterned fabric for me, which Evelyn promptly claimed for herself declaring "I want a fork dress!" How could I possibly refuse?

Which is why, after an idle hour on Friday afternoon and another that evening, Evelyn woke up Saturday morning and put on her "fork dress".

I'm seriously in love with this pattern folks. It's well written and, as far as I can tell, built to hold up well despite chicken hugging, tree climbing, scooter riding and a very long session of swinging in which we at last discovered the secret to pumping. The only problem I have now is weather or not to make another Ice Cream Dress out of the next pair of fabrics in my pile or if I want to plunge into the Birthday Dress. Or the Tea Party Dress. Or even the 2+2 Blouse and Skirt. decisions, decisions....

Ack! I can't decide. Opinions please!