Last fall I oh-so-sensibly bought some deeply discounted seersucker that JoAnn’s was clearing out for the season, fully intending to make Easter dresses out of it. I had even started cutting out pattern pieces and working on the dresses when sometime around the last weekend in March I was wandering around the fabric store with my mother-in-law and stumbled across a bolt of bright flowers on a black background and fell in love with it. I finally decided to be utterly impractical and completely change my plans for Easter dresses, figuring that between the fabric being on sale and using one of the 10%-off-total purchase coupons it was almost as good a deal as last-season’s seersucker.
Of course, while I was able to convince myself the wallet issue would be ok, I hadn't fully considered the calendering angle. Less than a month until Easter and back at the drawing board made for some frantic sewing right up until this past Saturday. Thankfully I had a really cute vintage-y pattern for infants that I’d been waiting for an excuse to use and that provided the inspiration for everything else to come together. The baby pattern had scallops where a contrast-colored yoke met the dress, ruffly sleeves, and some neat details like piping and embroidery. I finally decided to try and incorporate similar details while working on the big girls’ dresses, hopefully making three completely different outfits that still all related well to each other. (Our first attempt at not completely matchy-matchy-matchy Easter dresses...watch out: the universe might be imploding :) I also bought some floral stems and made coordinating hair bows. Here’s how it all turned out:
And one last picture for fun. A decent family picture has become the holy grail for us: we just can’t seem to get one no matter what we try! I really thought this might be it though: new Easter dresses, the Weatherbee’s nice front porch to sit on, beautiful weather, family to help take the picture and keep the girls smiling…finally! It was going to happen!
Or not. Maybe the Weatherbees got a better shot on their camera. This was the best of the ones on ours and all I can think is what the heck is wrong with our children????!!?? (And what chance do we even stand against a crowd like that???!) Sigh…maybe next year will be our year.
What a beautiful family!!! Very pretty color on you by the way! Love the dresses, especially Robins!
ReplyDeleteOH, that fabric is DIVINE, Melissa! If I'd seen that I would have purchased the entire bolt! Seriously. Any chance you have any remnants that have the name on it?
ReplyDeleteAnd the family pic is very cute - at least it has LOTS of personality and I think those family photos are so much more fun to look at later on. That's my theory, anyway, given that I don't have any perfect family photos to compare my very IMperfect ones to!
I'm glad I saw your post on FB because I'd never stumbled upon your blog before! How are you! Your girls are beautiful and I agree that letting their personality shine through makes any family pic better. I can usually get two of the three of our kids smiling and ready for the picture but three out of three is just impossible odds! The dresses are beautiful. I love the matching but not matching! Anyway, I hope you're doing well. I think of you every once in a while and send good thoughts your way. =-) ~Al
ReplyDeleteMelissa! I am so glad that you left a comment so that I could find your blog! I love your family (even the two that I haven't met) and I am so glad to see that all is well on your end, too! And those Easter dresses are so pretty! I wish that we lived closer so that we could sew together. :)Good luck with everything!
ReplyDeleteYou really are amazing Melissa! Beautiful, beautiful!! Oh yeah, and the little girl's dresses look really good too! :)
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