Winter is hard for me, always has been.  I don’t like snow, I don’t like cold..and from about November to March, I just cannot get warm!  Since I couldn’t convince my husband to move to the subtropics, I do what I can to keep things warm in my mind.  What does this have to do with a dress you ask?

Well, a month or two ago, Monique (the brains behind Trimsies cloth diapers-the only ones I offer in my shop) released a new dress pattern.  I wasn’t sure about it at first , because really, I have 14 million dress patterns, did I really need another?  I obviously finally decided I did..I don’t have a whole lot in knit patterns and I’m really wanting to start offering knit dress options in the shop, so I went ahead and got it. It’s called The Sunshine Dress, how cute is that?

The picture quality on all of these is pretty bad…these were taken first thing in the morning on a weekend (thus the bedhead, dirty table, and brothers sneaking in the pictures lol), and the dress is in the wash now.

This is really a fabulous pattern.   The style reminds me of my old ice skating outfits for some reason with the princess seams and the twirl that the skirt has.  This one I decided to experiment a bit, the pattern says you can use everything from regular cotton knit, to velour, to fleece.  I don’t keep alot of fleece around just because I REALLY don’t like it (I think it has to do with that whole “cold” thing), but I had some leftover from an order I had a few months ago.  So the main body panel and sleeves are a cotton rib knit, and the panels are fleece.

Now, this pattern only starts at a size 2 (but goes up to a size 8!), which I knew would be a bit big for Ree, but that’s ok.  We don’t mind a little growing room!  I used one of the pattern options for binding the neck in FOE (foldover elastic, and we know how much I love that stuff), and I carried that a step farther and used it to bind the hem as well.  As you can see above, that got a little bit wonky at the end, completely due to user error, but overall I really like the effect.  It makes the skirt “poof” just a little bit and gives the illusion there’s a crinoline underneath.  I had a bit of a rough time with the sleeves, but that was mostly user error.  Tiny sleeves are VERY hard to hem at the end of sewing so I usually do the hem before I sew the side seam.  I forgot this time so I just did a faux lettuce edging on them by using the zigzag stitch on my regular sewing machine.

Now, ya’ll know I tell it like it is, so I’ve got to tell you what I didn’t like as well.  There’s only one thing-in the pattern pieces, she used a yellow line for one size, and that’s a pet peeve of mine because it makes tracing that size very difficult.  Other than that, this is great!  It’s well thought out, well written and the instructions are clear.  It’s quite quick to put together and with so many options for different looks, it’s very versatile!

I will be making some of these up for the shop in different fabrics once I finish up the order I’m currently working on, so keep your eyes peeled.  And if you want to make one yourself, get your pattern here!