Entry #32

Pro

Ellen Barton

Ellen Barton, who likes to be called Ellie by her friends, is an eleven year old who lives on a farm in Washington state in the 1950’s.   This is her favorite dress.  The sky blue color matches her eyes and reminds her of the tiny forget-me-nots that grow in her Grandma’s garden.

Outfit Design

The inspiration for this outfit was a Heritage Doll Fashions pattern found at PixieFair.com.  The jumper is fully lined, and the blouse has cute puffy sleeves and a collar.  

         I decided to use some pretty blue cotton I had, along with a thicker white cotton for the blouse and lining.  Her shoes are a pair of white store-bought Mary Janes.  The hair kerchief and the ribbon sash were not things that I planned on originally.  I love it when ideas come to me in the middle of a project. :) 

Construction

1. First, of course, I cut out all the pieces for the dress and the blouse. 

2. Next, I sewed the jumper pieces together, creating both the outside piece and the lining.

3. Before sewing the lining to the main dress, I created the straps and basted them to the main piece.  

4. Then I sewed the lining to the dress, turned it right side out and ironed it!  Next came sewing on the velcro, hemming both the jumper and the lining, and adding buttons and buttonholes.  I was so excited to see it finished at that point that I forgot to take pictures!

5. The dress is finished!  Now for the blouse!

6. The blouse and facing pieces.

7. Almost done!  Once again, I forgot to take pictures of most of the process. :(

8. Then I simply cut a piece of ribbon and tied it around the waist as an accent!  The kerchief I whipped up quickly, simply hemming a triangle of fabric. 

Photo Shoot

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this outfit, and my doll loves it too! :)  She was very willing to pretend to be Ellie and model the outfit for me.    

As you can tell by the pictures, Ellie loves the outdoors, and one of her favorite pastimes is to sit under the oak tree and read.  

Her best friend Emily surprises her one day while she is reading and shows her her new dress.  The girls giggle when they realize that their dresses were made with the same pattern!  They can tell that their mothers are best friends, too!

Both Ellie’s and Emily’s dresses are available for purchase in my Etsy shop: www.RainbowLilyDesigns.etsy.com  I have a lot of other fun original designs there as well!  Go ahead and check them out!  

Thanks for looking!  Have a fabulous day!

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