While I diligently stitched tucks into Felicity’s drawers, Maddie harumphed around the sewing room grumbling about priorities. It’s summer. She wants to run and play, and up until a week ago she didn’t own anything she could do that in. I decided to press pause on Felicity’s underthings just long enough to stitch up a simple cotton frock for Maddie.
I was inspired by an 1863 fashion plate which I’ve had my eye on since I first started sewing enfantine dresses. The original appears to be silk, with rows and rows of ribbon ruffles.
I was willing to deal with the tedium of creating the ruffles. But somehow, no matter how hard I’d tried, I’d never been able to get excited about any fabric/ribbon combinations I’d toyed with. The picture had languished at the bottom of a drawer, until the day I went searching for play dress ideas and the inspiration for rick-rack struck. Aha! I thought. What could be easier and sweeter for summer than rick-rack?
As it turns out, the rick-rack was easy. The pattern not so much. I won’t bore you with the details, because I’m over it now. I love the dress. Maddie is happy. And peace has been restored to the workroom once more.
To see more pretty photos of Maddie in the garden, click HERE.
To see all of Maddie’s wardrobe projects so far, click HERE.
And to read about the new process I used for setting in her chemisette sleeves, click HERE.