Last night I was struck with a fit of insanity and decided to start and finish sewing a dress and jacket for Clare before our family Christmas gathering today.  I used fabric covered in a card print with scenes from Cinderella on each card for the dress, and pink drill for the jacket.

The pattern is a vintage Simplicity one, size 5, circa 1980. Luckily for me it was a “Jiffy” pattern – and it only took 2 1/2 hours all up to sew, including applique time (I had cut it out a week ago, so that shortened the making process last night somewhat).

The dress is super simple – four gores in the skirt sewn to a shaped elasticised bodice, then with shoulder straps added. The original pattern has pockets set into the side seams, but I didn’t have enough fabric for them.

The jacket is also super simple – the sleeves are just “grown on”, as is the facing. Only two pattern pieces! I appliqued Cinderella scenes from the leftover dress fabric onto the front and the back of the jacket. The ones on the back are in order of the Cinderella story, under instruction from Clare.

It looked so sweet on her today! Fairly short, as expected from a 1980 pattern, so Clare accessorised with leggings. Back up to the sewing room tonight, as I still have another three outfits to sew up before Christmas day!