The Merry Church Mouse: project run and play

This week for Project Run and Play we are able to showcase our signature style. It was a good chance for me to step back and really try and define what my signature style really is. I have such a diverse range in taste when it comes to children's clothing that it was a little difficult to begin to define what I would call a signature style.

My style is sort of a meeting of two opposite ends of the spectrum. I am totally blown away and inspired by the beautiful, delicate sweetness of heirloom sewing.

I look at these things and say "I want to make THAT!" Reality tells me that my budget cannot meet that demand... look at the prices of Swiss Nelona and you will see exactly why. Wowzers!!

And yet, I also love the fun and funky, crazy, ultra girliness of boutique sewing. I see fun, ruffly dresses like this one and I want to make it just as much as I want to make the sweet little heirloom dresses.

So I took a step back and tried to evaluate what it is about these things that I love.
I made a list of the things that I really seem drawn to.
1. Full skirts
2. Ruffles
3. Femininity
4. Floral prints
5. Classic styling
6. Sundresses (looking at my own website I realized that all of the dresses I offer on my website are some type of sundress)
7. Bright clear colors
8. Combining at least two fabrics

So I took the elements of these things and decided to incorporate as many of them into this little dress as time would allow.

I made a full skirt by using the full width of the fabric and added ruffles to the hem, across the top of the bodice and on the straps.

I used classic hand smocking on the front. Smocking is always sweet on a little girl's dress in my book. I had a marathon smocking session over the weekend. :)

I chose a bright, clear turquoise and yellow floral print as the main fabric and accented it with a sunny yellow check. I trimmed the back with a placket made of the yellow check fabric, turquoise buttons and a little bit of turquoise rickrack that I had leftover from another project. It was just the perfect color!

This was a fun adventure for me and I look forward to the next season of Project Run and Play.
I am also linking up for Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.

The theme this week for Project Run and Play was "Candy Inspired". I love this theme and I tried to run with it, even though I knew I had pretty limited time this week. I had a meeting for work Monday evening and we are getting ready to leave town on Saturday. Needless to say, I am only half finished. I decided to do some smocking on the top and it took a little longer than I expected. I smocked both the front and the sleeves.

I didn't have time to assemble the top, but here is the front laid out for a general idea of what it will look like. I plan to have buttons down the front. The neck will be gathered onto a bias band. I used a peasant top pattern as a base for this.