First Day of Kindergarten

It’s hard to believe that Kindergarten started a month ago, but it’s true. Madalena started great this year and she’s loving her new teacher and all the slightly more upbeat pace of the school activities. Anyway for her first day at kindergarten I’ve made her a new dress, because the girl seems to live in them, and a cardigan.

This dress had been on my mind since I’ve tested the Ash Jumpsuit. As I made the separates version for the test it was clear to me that the top would give a beautiful bodice for a dress. I kept the elasticized waist and made just a simple skirt to go with the top.

I skipped the facing pieces and made a rolled hem for the armhole and neckline because I wanted to shirr them instead of using elastic, I ended up making a rolled hem for the skirt too. I also shortened the neckline piece since I was afraid that shirring would not gather the fabric enough (with all the stuff I’ve already shirred I still find myself in stress every time I do it, I’m weird!!!). I was wrong and the neckline ended up a bit too high… Fabric wise I chose a blue polka dot rayon that I bought at my local fabric store. I really Love the color but I have to assume it was not the best choice for a little girls dress. It gets wrinkles like hell and it already has a little hole because it’s so thin (you can actually see it in the photo above), living and learning my friends!!! (Actually my friend Sara used it in a much proper way in a lovely coat you can see here)

 I think it come to be a lovely dress though and it will be a great summer dress next year, or so we hope since really warm summer days where kind of nowhere to be found this year… And I promise I didn’t shirr and made a rolled hem just because of my lazy self, I really was aiming to give the dress a sweetie/girly vibe (but don’t misread me I absolutely Love Love the original pattern!!!).

As for the cardigan, I was dying to make an Aster Cardigan from the very first time I saw it, but life got in the way (as usual) and I only managed to give it a try when we returned from vacation in the beginning of September. You may already have seen the reversible one I’ve made for the I [heart] Marcel Marlier series, but it was actually made after this one.

I used an Andrea Lauren print (ok by now you know I’m obsessed so not a word about it hahaha) in Spoonflower’s Organic Cotton Knit (which is super soft btw). At some point I was in doubt whether to make it with the collar or not because I was afraid the print was a bit too big, I asked some of my dear “sewing/blogger friends” their opinion and ended up making the collar; needless to say I really love the result (thanks ladies)!

For a pop of color I used a bit of a blue jersey (I had left from an old dress of mine that I had already refashioned into this tee) for the binding on the collar. The orange buttons came from one of my local notions shop; there are 4 shops in a short distance from my house and believe it or not none of them had white elastic thread when I needed it, only black, ughhh!

Usually in Portugal September is still a pretty warm month so the dress should have been a safe choice, but not this year, oh no… The day school started again it was pouring but my sweet girl could not be convinced not to take her special outfit, I have to confess it made me feel pretty great that she loved it so much!! ❤

Since that first day at kindergarten she only wore it again a few days ago, when these photos were taken. We went for lunch at one of Madalena’s favorite places and then took the girls to a fair that was set near our home.

We had a wonderful day (despite the incredibly awful music that was playing hahahah) and Francisca even got her first ride on the merry go round, she loved it!!! 😀