Easter Birthday Dresses

Last year I made my girls coordinating dresses at about this time. M's birthday seems like a good time to make some spring/summer dresses that'll be multi-purpose. This year M's birthday fell the day before Easter, which I thought was even more cool because her dad was born on Easter Sunday. Thus her celebration for 2011 included an easter egg hunt and ridiculous amounts of sugar. Before the friends arrived and the mayhem began I got the girls out for some chaos-free photos.

The pattern is the Oliver + S bubble dress. Adrianna gave it to me a very long time ago and I fiiiinally got to work on it. The instructions were pretty straightforward. I just don't love working with patterns. I think I've been spoiled by downloadable pdf patterns. I like being able to print and cut out exactly what I need. This pattern being a little more elaborate than most pdf options, I did get to try a few new-to-me techniques in the process and learned from doing it. Which is, I think, exactly why Adrianna chose to share her love affair with me. After I got past wrangling all of the pattern tissue paper, I was glad she did.

I made a 2T and a 5T. K is in the too-big-for-a-4-and-too-small-for-a-5 spot. So hers has some room to grow in the bodice. The skirt feels like it's a bit on the short side for her, but even with all of the running, jumping, hopping and egg snatching she did, there were no undies-sightings. Not any that I saw, anyway.

The fabric is Girl Friday/Falling Flowers by Cosmo Cricket. Part of my fabric shopping last month.

The dresses are entirely matchy-matchy, but so far these girls don't seem to mind the occasional match-up. I'm enjoying that while it lasts. Their love for matchy-matchy is less about dresses and more about temporary tattoos, mosquito bites and band-aids.

I can't help but have a twinge (okay, pangs) of "they're growing up too fast". Must make more dresses while they can and will still wear them.