Two Gingham Dresses

I really wanted to make a gingham summer dress for last month’s theme, but didn’t get to it in time. I’m making up for it now by squeaking in two gingham dresses, right at the end of the month (it’s still August here in Oregon, for another few hours at least).

I’m excited to see that a few of the pattern companies are releasing versions of their patterns as mother-daughter sets, but I had a certain kind of dress in mind that I couldn’t find matching patterns for. I improvised and came up with dresses that are really close, but not identical.

The fabrics are all cotton, perfect for summer. The girl’s dress is McCall’s 8707, a vintage pattern I’d bought in 2013. It’s a size 6, so I had to wait for my daughter to grow into it. If you look at the original pattern, you’ll see I just used the basic bodice and yoke pieces and skipped many of the other details available in the pattern. I also added a full circle skirt instead of making a gathered one. I love the way plaids and gingham fabrics look when made up as circle skirts, and the dress fabric was really too heavy to be gathered. Circle skirts are also best for twirling.

My dress is a combination of Vogue 8849 for the bodice and Vogue 8615 for the skirt. I was pleased that they combined so nicely. One never knows when combining patterns if things will fit as planned, but this one came together as though they were made for each other. Circle skirts are probably not best for riding a tractor…not that we let that stop us.

I’ve several more pictures and a few other details about construction if you care to read the post I wrote on my own blog. You can find that here.

Photo credits: Laura Singer. Special thanks to my parents for letting us use their place (and tractor) for pictures.