Vintage Dress Pattern

My little miss is growing up so fast, but she's still really tiny, so we are encountering the problem of age appropriate clothing from two angles...all the small sizes look too young on her, and all the older clothes don't fit either, and most of the time, they're not what I'd put her in anyway. I love little girls to look their age, and I'm not totally against strappy and sleeveless, but do you know how hard it is to find something with sleeves out there?? I know I'm not the only mum with this bugbear...Enter my pattern collection, which is rather vast, and my favourites are now my really old ones. This one is late 60's we estimate, and was passed on from my mil. She and her sisters remember it being something they wore, and the girl on the right in the pic even looks like my hubby's aunt did back then.

It's elegant, easy to wear, and more importantly, it has SLEEVES! I chose some of Spotlight's cotton tencel range to make this, and it turned out to be very economical. I also love that it washes well, and doesn't crease heavily while wearing.

I modified the pattern by adding some gathering at the neckline, and turning the sleeves into gathered cap sleeves. It took me a couple of goes to get the shape right that I wanted. Also, because I'm lazy, I didn't want to make facings, so I just chose to finish the neckline and sleeves with bias binding. I left off the hook and eye at the top too, because we find they always catch in her hair, and you can't see the top when her hair's down anyway...aka, I'm actually really lazy!

The draw string waist adds some more shape and interest, and means she can adjust it to how tight she wants. I've also left a generous hem, so we can extend the life of it as she grows.Here's my little miss, modeling for me very cheerfully after a fun game of water pistols with her brothers on a hot day, hence her stringy, damp hair lol!