Back to school shopping

I hadn’t really planned on doing much back to school with Sweet Daughter … she had plenty of summer clothes to get her started, but she decided she wanted a dress for the first day of school. So off we went. First stop … she saw jeans she liked. IN HER SIZE. Several pair that actually fit. For half off, AND I had a 30% off coupon. I jumped on those. SCORE.

And it all went to hell from there. 3 ½ hours later, and having hit every store that had girls clothes in the mall at least once, we had nothing. What wasn’t inappropriate was just plain ugly. Most were both. SD finally looked up at me with a mixture of disappointment and hope in her eyes and said “Mama … will you make me a dress?”

So, off to the fabric store we went. She found a cotton print she really liked. And then she started describing in great detail, what she wanted it to look like. So, we sat down with the pattern books and started flipping through the pages until we found one that was very close.

“Mama? Can you add a ruffle?”

“Yes, Kitten.”

“Can you take that ribbon off, but add one here, and a ribbon sash?”

“Yes, Kitty Cat.”

(I *did* have to veto the ribbon color that neither matched nor coordinated nor contrasted with her fabric. When the dress was done, she agreed that her second choice was the right way to go.)

So we got home and I altered and tweaked the pattern while prewashing the fabric and ribbon.

And this is how it turned out. Not what I would have picked, but I’m not the one wearing it. SD designed this herself and she’s thrilled with it, and it’s appropriate … and I’m very proud of what she came up with.