A Badminton Birthday Dress

First, thank you so much for the fun comments of congratulations. We are so very excited to be adding another person to our household! Since December is always chock full of activities as it is, we’re adding a baby’s arrival at the end of the month. Why not, right?!

This summer has been a low key one. Our kids’ preschool operates on the same calendar as the local school district, so my summer has consisted of much less sewing and much more playtime and pool time. On the day that we set up my Market booth, I dropped my kids off for their last day of preschool for the year. The week following Market was a rude awakening! No rest for the weary… there were games to play and bikes to ride and naps to skip!

School starts at the end of the month, so I will be back in my sewing room much more frequently. In the meantime, I’ll share a few things I did make this summer. In keeping with my promise to myself to balance business sewing with family sewing, I have several things I made just for fun. And I loved every minute of it!

I’ve started a bit of a tradition of sewing some clothing for my kids for their birthdays. I start at their second birthday, when the crazy fast growth seems to slow down a bit. My daughter gets birthday dresses and my son gets some fun new PJs. You can see the previous dresses here and here and the pjs in this post.

This year, Eleanor wanted a Rapunzel themed 4th birthday party. She will tell you that Rapunzel is her name she won’t hear it otherwise! I wanted to make her dress a nod to the purple dress in the movie without being a literal interpretation. The Badminton Dress from Oliver + S was perfect! Just enough sweet details to make it ‘frilly’ enough for her but not overly ruffled and heavy. And it was so quick to sew! I started it after Market and it was ready for her birthday party at the end of the next week. I used two Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids (in Mauve and Venus). If you’ve not felt them with your own two hands, you are missing out!

There is a great thread on the Oliver + S forum about kids ‘growing up’ with Oliver + S clothing and I am so glad to have these images and outfits for my kids. As Eleanor has gotten older, I’ve given her more input into what her dresses look like and this year Graham will get to pick out some fun new PJ fabric with me. They really have such special meaning in our family.