easter finery

Several months ago, Mom offered me a pair of ruffled yellow gingham pillowcases, and I was happy to say yes!  I had given them to her for Christmas probably 15 years ago, back when her bedroom was yellow and hunter green.  She had repainted since, was cleaning out, and I was having visions of making matching little girl night gowns, like the one I made for Gemma last year.  It's a darling little pattern!  So, I started them a few weeks ago, fully intending for them to be nightgowns . . . go ahead and laugh, but as I finished them up, John and I agreed that they could pass for dresses!

We aren't usually the type to get new dresses for Easter every year, mostly because we've been so blessed with hand-me-downs that I usually pick out something special and spring-like for each girl and that's that.  There's something quite sweet about matching, though.  It was when I settled on the Beatrix Potter buttons from my button jar that my mind was made up, I think.  

Back when Mom and I were fabric-shopping for our wedding, we bought a yard of lovely lace (or is it embroidered netting?) without any concrete plans for it.  It ended up saving the day on the morning of the wedding when my dress was too low-cut in front, so a piece of it is still in my wedding gown.  Then, I took out two more little cuts to fill in the necklines of the bridesmaid dresses Heidi and I wore for Derek and Liz's wedding.  I'm not sure what brought it to mind again, but I decided to put the remaining bits to some use.  First I cut strips from the plain netting end and stitched some simple puff rosettes for our girlies' shoes.  (We're slowly transitioning to minimal shoes for our children, and I decided that leather ballet slippers would be preferable to anything with a heel for this summer!)  Then, on Saturday night, I cut some more strips, this time including the embroidered edge, and zig-zagged them together on my machine until they were long enough to make into bows.  Somehow my finicky hot glue gun cooperated, the zig-zag seams hid just perfectly and they are just the sweetest bows I've ever made!  Gemma had already "made" a bow with her friends for Easter, though, so I wasn't about to deny her the pleasure of wearing her own handiwork.

This may be the best photo of the two of them together . . . Ruthie had a little Easter Basket to take home from her Sunday School class, and Gemma did not, so she was very very interested in sister's.

And what's an Easter photo without Thumper, our new pet, enjoying his Sunday carrot?  :)

So, nightgown dresses, haha!  One more thing!  Since the original tutorial is only written as a size 4, I had to draw up my own pattern pieces for size 2, and I'm more than happy to share them if there's interest.  Let me know!