Summer Dress

Yay, Im busy working on some new projects, for a minute there I was stumped with what to start on next! Here is a dress that I have finished for my eldest. She ADORES her new outfit as it apparently twirls really well.
Here's a bit of a description of how I put it together. First, I started with some beautiful soft acrylic yarn- it was vitally important NOT to be itchy, seeing as it would be right on her skin. This 100% acrylic Little Grins from Spotlight fit the requirements perfectly, and the colour was a bonus! Then I found some printed cotton to match. This stuff that I picked up was acutally in the quilting section, a little heavier than your average cotton, but I couldnt go past the pattern and colours!

The crochet stitch that I decided to use for the bodice was found in a book on my shelf called 'The needlework Book' and it was called the 'close shell stitch', which describes it nicely! I basically just designed the shape as I went, no idea of stitch count or rows or anything, so please dont ask! ;) A tip though, I had a singlet of hers handy to keep a guage on how the shape and size should go, and having her close by for the occasional fitting helped too!

(Edited to add a closeup shot of the bodice here for Denise dV)

The next thing I did was to calculate roughly how long I wanted her skirt to be, and then added about 20cm onto that (I repeat, roughly!) With this measurement I cut the skirt pieces to size. Which is simply 2 squares that measure (in this case) 65cm from centre out diagonally to the corners. Then I measured her waist, and cut out a hole of that dimension in the centre of each square. I then offset the 2 squares diagonally to eachother and stitched the two holes together, then they were stitched to the top. And that's it! I made a waist band to go round the middle, hemmed the skirt, added a little ribbon, and ties on the shoulders... voila!

One very pleased little girl! :)

xxEm