Big robe-y + blouse for me

My husband agreed to buy this vintage-y cotton floral lawn for my birthday, even though I'm pretty sure he thinks it's hideous.  I was able to squeeze a blouse for myself and a dress for Miss L out of two yards.  I know that some sewists consider that ridiculous ("I always chuckle inwardly a bit at the people who walk up to the cutting table with a pattern envelope in hand and ask for 2 3/8 yards of something. Newsflash, Everyone: It’s not going to kill you to pony up and buy that extra 1/8 of a yard and call it an even 2.5 so you have a little room for shrinkage/error!!!" from Rae's blog post, for example...) but I love using up every last scrap of something.  Probably because my children's closet is bursting with dozens of fabric scraps already, leaving little room for their toys.  The fabric (Robert Kaufman's London Calling 2 in vintage) is something I saw and loved in this post.  I thought the fabric would be a good match for the Lisette market blouse, which I made last year and wear all the time.  The best compliment I've received on that blouse, or on anything I've sewn for myself: "Is that Boden?  What a cute top!"  Personally I don't love hearing, "Did you make that?"

The original market blouse from last summer

Market blouse 2

This time I cut the blouse 2" longer (faithful readers know that I feel that all tops are too short these days, even though I have the World's Shortest Torso) and lengthened the armbands by an 1" to stop them from cutting into my upper arms.  The crowning achievement here is that the center front button band matches the pattern exactly, and is thus invisible.  

Having used up all my precision and fussiness on the blouse, the dress was in for a bit of a rougher ride.  It's the Oliver + S birthday party dress pattern in a 3T to maximize wear.  The dress is too long but otherwise just fine for a two year old.  Here she is modeling it at 6 a.m. this morning:

This pattern is ranked as rather difficult, and there are lots of fancy details: front box pleats, rear buttons, faced hem.  I used a different fabric for the hem since I was cutting it so close with my yardage, and had a very hard time getting the hem to lay flat - essentially, I ended up gathering it in places and just stuffing it in.  Here's a peek at the contrast hem and box pleats, which you sew inside to keep in place after washing (really hoping that works or this dress is not going to get much wear!).

The button tab is in beige linen (left over from big brother's pants) and the buttons are pale pink.  Don't ask about the seam running down the middle of the center pleat, okay?

Now I just need to remember never to wear my blouse on the day she's in her dress!