Making dresses

I finished this dress for Cassidy today, using the Geranium dress pattern from Made By Rae. It has the longer waist from the Geranium Expansion Pack, and a longer skirt (I just eyeballed it to land somewhere mid-shin for her). Despite the fact that she is anything from a women's size 2-6 and wears a 32B bra, she still fits in the largest size of the pattern, which is a size 12. I shaved the side seam allowance to 1/4" from 3/8" just to try and give her a little room...next time I cut it out I might offset the front bodice another 1/4" from the fold, as well, but it actually fits quite well and she is very happy. She prefers not to wear skirts knee length or above, especially in public, and likes to layer a lot. She has a very specific aesthetic and always has had. As a side note, I love her dirty feet and radiant smile in this photo. She is growing out her hair; last year or so she had me cut it because she didn't like how blonde her ends were getting from all the sun, but I know she misses her longer hair. This little hairstyle she did today is so sweet.

So far this spring I have sewn eight Geraniums! It is absolutely my number one go-to pattern. I've sewn several girls' dress patterns over the years, but this one is their favorite. I have done sleeved versions, and they like those, but the sleeveless ones tend to be their favorites (and layer adorably over the sleeved ones). This just happened to be a season when I had free fabric gifted to me by someone with a large stash they were no longer in need of, and a bunch of girls who had grown only in height, but had worn out a bunch of clothes, so I'm not out of the woods yet on my spring sewing. I have been trying to allow myself to take the time to be more of a process sewer this go-around; I tend to be very product oriented and pedal to the metal and it results in a lot of mistakes! I think this gingham number was the only dress I didn't make a mistake on, and I completely irretrievably botched an entire dress. Twice. Slowing down has really helped, and helped me to enjoy it more, as well.

I had a question the other day about whether or not my children are required to wear dresses, and the answer is no. They each very much have their own styles, and 90% of their purchased clothing, they buy themselves from thrift shops or vintage shops (I buy the boring stuff like underwear and bras). I don't feel that it's appropriate to impose my ideas of style onto them, and I very much believe that dressing and adorning ourselves is a right of expression. We get a lot of shock and awe when we are out and about, a bunch of girls in dresses. I am sure plenty of people believe it has something to do with religion. I find it surprising that it should be so shocking, when we are just a couple of generations out from all girls wearing dresses, but I suppose it is pretty out of the norm by today's standards. Fortunately we don't bother ourselves with those. We also have pretty small wardrobes by most standards I think. Each girl has five, maybe six outfits. For Willa and Molly they're dresses. Cassidy likes separates (long skirts and billowy blouses) and dresses both, Maya is my jeans and leggings wearer, though she wears dresses too. This wasn't exactly planned, though I had detailed lists back when I was the one choosing their clothing. They've never felt a need for more and honestly my clothing budget for them is very scanty, so it is primarily out of necessity. But I also feel that it is very freeing not to be burdened with a bunch of clothes you don't know if they will wear or not. I never have any trouble with them getting overwhelmed, or not being able to get dressed in the morning. Simplify, simplify. It makes everything easier.