Sunny Inspiration

My crazy 3 year old is full of strong opinions. Many involve sunscreen and photo shoots. Since I love a good challenge, I have been making her wear hats and long sleeves and have been timing photo shoots when she is engrossed in something she loves. 

In an effort to break in my new sewing machine (thanks to the husband and my mother for my early birthday/ Mom's day present), Sora helped me pick out a dress and fabric inspiration. She chose something with much wider sleeves, but I loved the idea of sewing in the knit sleeves. She also technically only picked out the main fabric - she is still working on coordinating fabrics it seems. I added 8 rows of shirring to the front top and 6 to the back. I also added 2 pockets as my crazy kid always needs a pocket for the garbage she is habitually picking up. 

I also decided to throw in a hat. It in no way coordinates, but it is reversible and the two prints kind of how together. Since she needs both long sleeves and a hat to avoid sunscreen, we get crazy combinations like this on an hourly basis (upon which time she gets soaking wet and needs a complete outfit change).

I used an existing bucket hat to create a pattern. I felt like a genius since I even used math to figure out circumference of the circle to make sure all the pieces would fit together, but it did not come together as easily as math would have made me believe and I had to take in a few seams here and there midway through the hat.

She also picked out the fabric for the hat. It took 2 - 1/3 yard strips and I steered her to some duck cotton fabric that was on sale.

And now that the water's gone, we'd better get going! Stay tuned for some car adventure travel tips and craftiness soon!