Patriotic Dress

The Second Grade Students at my daughter's school had a Program last night. All the second grade classes gathered together on stage and sang Patriotic Songs, read Poems about America, and recited quotes about Freedom. We then met our children in their classrooms so they could share their Writing Portfolios with us.

It was requested that the kids all wear red, white and/or blue. You now what that means. I got the brilliant idea that I should make little K a dress for the program. The only problem is, I didn't do anything about it until Monday...the program was on Tuesday! It's not as crazy as it sounds. I had fabric on hand that I wanted to use, and I was sure I could find a pattern that didn't require any zippers or special notions - so it shouldn't take too long - right?

Here's the dress:

And it really didn't take very long to make. I love the pattern. It's McCalls #5613. I think I would have liked the dress to be a little bit longer (my daughter is smaller than the average 8 year old, so I never have to lengthen patterns). This dress would be above the knee on an average size child. I think it would be super cute slightly shorter with a pair of leggings also. I was thinking about adding a ruffle for length, but the zig zags were making me kind of dizzy already.

I had fun layering the buttons (please don't look at my button hole. I knew how to do them on my old machine - and I'm sure my new machine can do them with just a turn of a dial, but I didn't have time to figure out how, so I just zig zagged the button holes).

I love the big over sized pockets that have this cute pleated detail.

The fabric is from Hancock Fabrics (over a year ago). Our store closed down, so I got the entire bolt cheap. I'll be making an American Girl Coordinating Doll Dress soon (per my daughters request).