Linen dress and dollar store doily

Remember the Carefree Clothes for Little Girls book I posted about a while back? There were a number of projects I had my eye on when I first picked it up and I've slowly been working my way through my favorites.

After the success I had with the little apron on the front cover a few months back, I decided to tackle the adorable dress from the back cover next. The result is this lovely pale green pinstriped linen dress. The fabric actually came from the shirting section (a previously unexplored section which has now become one of my favorites in the fabric store).

 The collar features a trimming of a doily (I got mine from a dollar store) with the rest of the doily affixed to one side of the dress. The sleeves have a bit of a puff to them without looking too much like a 1980s flashback (admit it, you remember some of those dresses our mothers used to put us in!)

The button is wood imprinted with a snowflake (which I realize you pretty much can't see at all in this picture, but trust me, it's there). Creating and attaching the loop was probably the hardest part of the pattern. Perhaps it's just me, but I found the instructions a little lacking on this step, so I improvised by braiding a few strands of embroidery floss and stitched them on. It seems to work okay, but I probably made the loop a bit larger than I needed.

I'd intended this as a party dress for Abner's birthday last month and was in such a rush to have it ready for the party that I didn't even pre-wash the fabric! Crazy, I know. Sometimes I like to add a little excitement to my sewing. So after everything was all stitched up, I had to throw it in the wash and hope that the linen and the doily would shrink at about the same rate -- thankfully they did! Sadly, they didn't shrink quite enough though because it's still going to be a while before Abner will properly fit this dress.