4 Years Old

Gaiw recently had a birthday!

 She is a whole four years old now, and full of life.

  I love this opinionated, dramatic, exuberant little girl!

  Gaiw loves to wiggle and dance and twirl- she's not one for sitting still long!

  If she disagrees with me I'm guaranteed to hear about it.... loudly and emphatically.

  Gaiw is delighted by all things princess, and interested in all things food.

  She can talk about a mile a minute, and will tell stories for hours at a time, with sparkling eyes and dramatic flourishes.

  For her birthday, I made her a Tinny dress.

  I made one of these a couple of years ago and though the end result was very cute and has been well-worn, I was pretty disappointed with the pattern. An recently re-released it with expanded options and sizing, and with a complete overhaul of the drafting and illustrations. It's basically a whole new pattern, so I decided to give it another chance!

  I'm glad, I did, it is vastly improved over the original! It's still not perfect, but the main things that I disliked have been changed... the facings have been replaced with a bodice lining, the fit is better, and there is an opening in the skirt now too, instead of just in the bodice. The pieces also match up nicely now. There still aren't any notches, and I don't love the bodice proportions, but now it's a pattern I'll use again.

  According to the sizing chart, Gaiw fits in a 4. However, I took a look at the finished measurement chart and decided to go with a size 3 for a more fitted look. I went with the size 3 length in the bodice too. Next time I may shorten the bodice a bit more, because I prefer a higher waist on little girl dresses, but I think this worked.

  I actually used the size 12 skirt to make sure it would be long enough... a couple inches shorter wouldn't have hurt but the size 3 would have been way too short. I'm pretty pleased with the fit on Gaiw... the shoulders could be a bit more sloped and a bit wider, but that is pretty typical for her.

  I usually pin my zippers in place but this time I basted and my seams matched up perfectly!

  I'll put the top stop of the zipper a little lower than the pattern recommends next time, and put a hook and eye above it.

  I used a pretty green eyelet (I think Karen sent this to me? If so, thank you Karen!) and underlined it with the thinnest woven white fabric I had, which was white quilting cotton... the bodice is underlined and lined, but the skirt is a mix between underlining and lining. I chose to slip-stitch the bodice down rather than stitching in the ditch.

  I was originally planning on making the circle-skirt version, but I didn't have enough lining fabric for that.

  I didn't have any matching green thread, so I ended up hand-stitching the hem with white thread. It was a lot more stitching at once than I'm used to, and by the end one of my arms was partially numb, but it turned out beautifully.

  I only caught the underlining, so the hem isn't visible at all from the outside:

  If it weren't for the zipper and back seam (which is finished with the underlining) Gaiw could probably wear this dress inside out without anyone noticing!

  In addition to the dress, I gave Gaiw the princess set she's playing with in the photos and a flashlight, and made her a cake. I made a surprise-inside cake, which sort-of worked, but I totally flubbed the frosting, so the only photo I got was with my phone. She said it was a good birthday. =)

  Thanks for stopping by,