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Ani's Dresses

Awhile back when I had my mornings of sewing, I had two cut-outs of Lotta's simple dresses for Ani. One in a cute color palette of fruit pattern, and the other an awesome fall hounds-tooth scheme in corduroy. Here are the finished projects, each with their own vintage button from a lovely stash a friend gave me!
I used regular bias trim for the button loop holes, and hand-made matching bias for the arms and neck holes. Of course it normally matches right up but she's sitting and so it looks a bit off.
Here is an up-close of the fruit dress where I put the bias trim on the outside to create a slight cap sleeve effect and open neck with decorative stitch (read: didn't know what the heck I was doing. You can see the insides of the sleeves here...a bit rough. The neckline worked out).
Here is her second dress, another great print that I'd been saving for her. This dress looks exactly like the Lotta Jansdotter pattern, just an easy sleeveless dress with a stitched line for the collar line and arm holes.
Here is the detailing on the back. A cool green button works really well with this print; reminds me of the 70s. You can see here that the two dresses are different since there is no decorative stitching or outside bias trim. Ahem.
Here is an up close of this dress. I was a bit nervous both of them wouldn't turn out because I had to really increase room everywhere (pattern was made for an 18 month old) and of course I had never sewn clothes before that week, either. Needless to say they look great on her, and her reaction was, "Mommy made dresses for me, I wear them today!" The only thing I disliked about the pattern was that there was no drawn diagram in the book--just words--to explain how to piece together the bias trim. I am a visual learner and even though I love to read, when I follow patterns I expect there to be a step-by-step way of doing things in drawn form. It took me awhile to figure it out and I still just think I got lucky on the second try. Next time: visuals!
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All in all a good learning experience, and a few cute dresses/tunics for the upcoming months.
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