Today is actually Day 7, the last day of the challenge, but this dress was finished on Day 5, hence the title.
So, I love how this dress turned out! I wanted to used this beautiful brown wool suiting that I had, but I was concerned about it irritating the little girl’s skin. It’s not terribly rough, but I didn’t want her to be uncomfortable. The bodice of the dress is lined so that wasn’t a problem, but the sleeves and neck are not. I opted to use some very soft voile for the lining, the sleeves, and the neck. I was going for the look of a jumper over a blouse and I think it worked out pretty nicely. There is another option for this dress that I actually prefer with a looser sleeve and a not gathered neck. I decided to go with this view because I felt it looked more like a blouse under a dress. I’m happy with how it turned out.
There is one thing I would have liked to have done differently. I would love to see this dress with a peter pan collar. I knew it would take more time to get it all figured out and this was my first time using this pattern so I went ahead and did it as written. Here’s the back.
One of the reasons I wanted to make this dress was for the invisible zipper. I don’t love following patterns, but Oliver + S patterns are so well written and often include techniques and explanations you don’t see in other patterns. Anyway, I know I have put in an invisible zipper before (it might have been about 8 years ago), but a few weeks ago when I attempted one on a pillow cover I ended up with a big mess which is now buried at the bottom of the fabric bin! If it hadn’t been some of my natural dyed fabric I probably would have chopped it up for scraps, but instead I determined that I must be doing something wrong and put it away until I had time to figure out what that was! There is some puckering around the zipper from the stretch of the wool, but I don’t think it looked as bad on her as it does in that photo.
Here’s a shot of the kangaroo pocket. My seams didn’t line up perfectly on this, but I didn’t stress over it, because I know that it’s never going to just lay flat when she’s wearing it. Lot of mistakes get covered up by children who are too busy to slow down!
Now here is Norah in the dress. She seemed to be pretty comfortable in it and it didn’t restrict her movement at all.
Unfortunately all the pictures of her standing in it were quite blurry. She was more wobbly than normal during the photo shoot. Here’s one of the blurry shots so you can see how the dress fits.
I’ve got at least one more post coming to show you what I finished up last night and possibly another if I get in a quick little hour project sometime today.
Under the Beech Trees 
