A Jane Austen Easter Dress

Other than sewing and baking, my other passion is knitting.  So it seemed to be a perfect blend when I found the pattern for the Jane Austen Dress in Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines, by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne.  The dress is made up of two parts:  a knitted bodice, and a fabric skirt.  Perfect!  I used yarn and fabric I had in my stash, so the dress cost me nothing but time!  Yahoo!  The yarn was Knitpicks Shine Worsted, in Wisteria.  It is a cotton/modal blend that is super soft and machine washable!  Two very important criteria for projects for kids!  The fabric is yellow with little circles and dots which I purchased from my local JoAnns at some point.

I also made the Clever Girl the Jane Austen Shrug to go with the dress.  She was so excited that the dress had this "extra sweater thing" to go with it!  Again, it used stash yarn, Knitpicks Shine Sport in Butter, and Rowan All Seasons Cotton in White for the trim. 

The Clever Girl's lips are a bit rosier than usual in these pictures...  She chose this afternoon to swan dive out of her crib!  Amazingly, she received only a fat lip from the experience!  And she said, "Momma, I climbed out of my bed.  That was NOT a good idea!"  No, sweet girl, it was not!

This was the Clever Girl's Easter dress in 2011 when she was 2.  It is now 2012 and it still fits her!  She seems to  grow taller but doesn't really gain weight so we can keep wearing it!  Yeah!