I did manage to finish sewing Clare a dress for her birthday!

It’s the Oliver + s Seashore Sundress, in size 8. This is another delightful pattern from Oliver + s. The instructions were the usual excellent standard that I have come to expect from them. The construction was straight forward. I think that I spent more time in cutting out the dress, since I chose a directional fabric. There was a hell of a lot of stripe matching to do!

There are princess seams down the front and the back, and the gathered skirt goes around the back but only to the princess seams at the side front. So I matched up the pattern as best I could aligning the stripes across the vertical seams while still managing to keep the repeat constant horizontally. Starting with the centre front piece and then working around the rest of the dress from there was the trick to the cutting layout! Much of it was single layer.

There are little pockets tucked into each side of the skirt. So sweet! This dress lends itself very well to piping around the pocket and along the princess seams, but I didn’t include that detail.

Such a terrific style for the hot days that we are now having in Melbourne. It is easy to sew, and I think it was assembled in around two hours (after cutting time). The fabric came from Spotlight some years ago. It’s such a fun design! I’ve used the alternate colourway before here and here and here.

Clare had a lovely tenth birthday, and is spending as much time as possible glued to her new iPod touch. They have been the tenth birthday present of choice amongst her friends.  We’ve held off on hand-held electronic toys or games consoles until now, as the kids watch enough television and play enough computer games on my desktop computer (and my android phone) as it is. But now that we have succumbed, we’re amazed at how much they can do. She’s particularly enjoying Facetime with her grandmothers. Of course, now we are hearing the refrain of “can I have an iPod” from Stella.  My reply of “when you turn ten” is a difficult one for her to process at only five years old!