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Vines

Vines 1

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Vines 2

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Keira's birthday is coming up soon, and I had ordered some fabric from Japan ages ago with the idea of making her a dress for autumn. The fabric is a light cotton- dark grey with a vine design in cream. I finished it last night, and got it wrapped up even with a bit of time to spare- which is most unlike me. To make the dress, I used my own pattern- it's a very simple one with a lined bodice and gathered skirt.

This morning when I got up I stood on one of Keira's 'collections' with my bare feet (it consisted mostly of spiky acorn cases and baby pine cones.) And that is how I got the idea to make her a little purse with a long strap from the leftover vines fabric. I will try and train her to keep such nature delights in the bag, rather than on the floor. I can try, at least.

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26 responses to “vines dress”

  1. Jacqui Avatar

    What gorgeous fabric! Love it.
    I was once told that if your child has lost a small toy all you need to do is turn off the lights in the room so it’s dark and take your shoes off and walk barefoot. You will step on the lost item almost immediately, causing severe pain, but at least you will have found it. I think the same thing probably applies to cat vomit…

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  2. Kate Avatar

    Gorgeous dress and bag!

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  3. Holly C. Avatar

    She will look adorable, I’m sure!

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  4. annri Avatar

    She will love the dress and be so cute! The fabric is a very happy print! We have similar problems with bits & pieces of toys (everything!), so we specialize in baskets, boxes & bags here too.
    I’ve been in the sewing mood lately; mended a small hole in a dress and then scattered embroidered little flowers all about it just for fun! Thought of you. 🙂

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  5. Eunhwa Avatar

    Beautiful dress and bag! I love the pattern; she’ll look so pretty in it!

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  6. tinyhappy Avatar

    ha!!
    too true…

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  7. louana Avatar

    I love the dress fabric! I think Eloise and Keira would be great friends, I have almost identical collections here too. Pinecones, feather, acorns, stones the list goes on. It’s nice to step onto a feather, not so nice to step on a pinecone!

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  8. Denise | Chez Danisse Avatar

    That precious little dress with that sweet little purse …I don’t even know what to say. Lucky Keira!

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  9. Teena Avatar

    Love your work…that dress is adorable!

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  10. tinyhappy Avatar

    that sounds like a nice mending job, annri… 🙂

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  11. Francesca Avatar

    Ouch;)! I love the fabric, quite striking with its large leafy pattern, the dark background and the splash of color here and there.

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  12. Eyecatchers Avatar

    love the bag – wouldn’t mind it myself to put all my arty bits and pieces in 🙂

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  13. Hanna Avatar

    such a sweet dress, so pretty.
    And yes we need a few of those little bags around here too, children just love to collect ‘treasures’ it seems.

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  14. julie Avatar

    Very pretty! I’m sure she’ll love both. The fabric is so nice.

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  15. Karin Avatar

    Adorable little dress. And a wonderful idea to use a little pouch for her treasures.
    Here I cleared a shelf in our bookcase and we named it our ‘nature shelf’. There the little ones place all the treasures they find when they are playing outside and everyone can admire them. So maybe, if she’s not using the pouch they way you intended (I am sure she will use it, since it’s so cute and little girls mostly love, love, love pouches, but you never know what SHE will think is the perfect use for it, I experienced with my girl ;-)) that could be another idea for you too 🙂

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  16. Louise Avatar
    Louise

    My little girl is just the same about sticks and stones. Before she could speak properly she called them ticks and tones and her pockets (and mine) were always full of them. She treated them like they were alive and looked after them very well. Just think how much money I could have saved on actual toys if I had capitalised on that!

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  17. Molly Avatar

    Smashing, the dress and inspired “collections keeper”, both. Happy birthday.

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  18. elenagold Avatar
  19. nicola@which name? Avatar

    beautiful! which birthday will she be celebrating?
    nicola
    http://whichname.blogspot.com

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  20. Nancy Cook Avatar

    love this post melissa. pretty dress and bag
    yes we can only try to train them:)
    the red in the fabrics will highlight those beautiful rosy cheeks.

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  21. mandy Avatar

    oh my goodness this dress is so very sweet!

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  22. Merruli Avatar

    The dress is simply lovely. I’m sure she will love it.
    My younger daughter is a gatherer by her nature, but I still haven’t found a way to keep the stones and branches and all somewhere else than on the floor. I hope the pouch does the trick.

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  23. Teresa Avatar

    The dress is so sweet and how clever of you to design it yourself! I love the little glimpse of lining/facing too. It must be an instinctive thing for children to collect little things from nature. I still have a collection of pebbles, shells and bits of wood collected by mine and they are 24 and 21 now. I can’t bear to part with them!
    Teresa x

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  24. Margaret Oomen Avatar

    i always love your use of contrasting interface fabrics.
    Great nature collection Keira:)

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  25. Vintage Simple Avatar

    They are both precious..! Such a sweet post. Beautiful.
    warmly,
    -maria

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  26. Irmhild Avatar

    love love love that fabric, so beautiful! it’s made a beautiful dress and bag!

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