Fish Dress

Two year old Alastair has been with us for 3 days now and was joined yesterday by Robert and Laurel.  Our home has been like a combination circus/amusement park.  There are happenings in all three rings and someone always waiting in line for fun or food.  It all ends tomorrow afternoon when Alastair’s parents return from their trip to New England.

Bob and I will be wistfully sorry to see the children go, but at the same time welcome the standard quiet and serenity of our home.  One of the first things I will do is sew, which is like my reset button.

Often, the quickest way to reset is to embroider a “blank.”  I like to keep some on hand for times like this when I need a quick sewing fix.  Tee shirts are handy, useful and always appreciated by my sweet grandsons, but girlie projects suit me best.  Amid last week’s hustle and bustle I stole a few moments to customize this little knit popover frock.  It was  just enough for me to get over my hump and back on track for other things I needed to do, but really didn’t want to do. 

I purchased three of these  reasonably priced garments at Sears Essentials, in purple/lavender as shown, blue/aqua and pink/rose.  Fortunately, my almost 7 year-old  granddaughter can still wear a 6-6x, the largest size  available in this style. If it came in larger sizes, I would have picked up several more.

It’s no secret that Florida summers are hot HOT HOT!   This dress is cooler than a shorts  outfit and is suitable for the many and varied activities of Laurel’s day.

I really enjoy fiddling with designs on the computer with my beloved BuzzEdit2 program.  Rarely does a stock embroidery composition suit me to a T, as I always seem to want more detail or less or a larger design or smaller.  I can’t draw or paint, but with BuzzEdit I can use individual components to create vignettes exactly as I imagine them.  It is much like using words to form a sentence or a poem.

For this bodice, I began with three fish from Anita Goodesigns’  Baby Aloha collection.  They are designed for applique, but I chose skip that technique to allow the lavender knit bodice serve as the fish body.  Simple circles were drawn in BuzzEdit2 for the silvery bubbles and the sea grass was taken from my greenery design folder, source unknown.

Dakota Collectibles’ Aquarium Scenes set has everything you could want to create an underwater scene.  I extracted the coral, yellow water plant and star fish to include in this design.

When I bought the dress, I bought purple flip flops with sparkly silver straps.  My plan was to make toe bows, but I ran out of time.  This can be done later when I have a free moment.  I need to schedule some of those.  They just don’t seem to come round without a plan.

My next project is for Laurel’s 7th birthday this weekend.  She is having a sleepover party so I want to make pajamas for her and a matching pair for her American Girls doll. Now that should be fun.  Meanwhile, when I read this little remembrance, I knew how true it was.