Taking Inspiration from Others

Earlier this year, my blogging feed showed me that Jennifer had posted a new entry to her blog so I clicked on the link to see what she'd written.  She was showing off a dress that she'd made for her daughter and it gave me the idea of making something similar for DD2 (even though Jennifer isn't happy with the size her dress came out - but better too big than too small when it comes to children, I always say :) ).

I had a think and came up with a plan.  I went to the yarn shop and bought some yarn and some fabric.  I made a few squares.  Then..... I got waylaid by something else and the couple of squares I'd made sat, neglected, in a bag.  Recently, I got into a sewing kind of mood and have been playing with fabric, such as lining my crocheted bag and sewing some charm squares into a 'something' which I'll blog about at a later date.  So, my squares have been pulled out of hibernation and I've been hooking and sewing.  I'm nowhere near finished, but progress is being made.

As DD2 turns 12 tomorrow, I needed to modify the original idea to give a bit more up-top coverage, so I'll be doing two rows of squares (leaving gaps at the under-arms) and will be sewing squares together to make the straps.  I know that it's a bit of a girly kind of dress, but DD2 is still very much a girly kind of girl and is happy to wear flouncy clothing.  And yes, I know that this summer seems to be over, but DD2 likes to be covered up whatever the weather and even if it was 26C outside, she'd still be wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt and leggings or tights with a dress.

So, photos.

Eight squares made and sewn together (it's been ages since I made Granny Squares and had forgotten how fiddly the centre of each one is to make).  Another eight middles made (I've sewn the ends in since taking this photo earlier this afternoon).  I think I'll need 26-30 squares in total, so a way to go yet.

The fabric for the skirt?  This photo comes with a warning of brightness!!!

I couldn't resist.  In fact, I bought the fabric first and then chose the cotton yarn to match.

When I got this project out of hibernation last week (and was - perhaps - saying rude words about the fiddliness of starting to crochet Granny squares) I started thinking about other ways of making a crocheted or knitted bodice to attach to a fabric skirt and had a light-bulb moment when I thought of using a top-down cardigan yoke (probably backwards so it does up at the back - but maybe not), stopping a couple of inches below the armpit area, or just carrying on with the crochet to the natural waistline.  Lo and behold, a couple of days later up pops a new blog post from Jennifer and guess what?  Yes, she's done something very similar to what I was thinking.

I managed to 'escape' from DD2 the other day as hubby took a couple of days as annual leave from work after the bank holiday and I wanted to see if Oranges and Lemons, a lovely shop in our little town, had some ribbon I could use to go around the top of my crocheted bag (it did - I bought some dark blue grosgrain ribbon, which has stabilised the handles nicely).  As I went in the door, I glanced at the basket the owner uses for reduced items and spotted some poly-cotton fabric marked at £3.50 per metre, so I bought a metre with a view to using it as a skirt for another crocheted-bodice dress.  Definitely more subtle than the pink floral fabric, but DD2 likes it.

I'm not sure what colour to do the bodice though.  Cream might be pushing my luck a bit as DD2 can still be a bit of a mucky pup.  Pink to match the roses?  Green to match the leaves?  As the bodice on the Granny square dress is pink, I'm leaning towards green, but DD2 is definitely a lover of all things pink.

We've now got to decide what length to make each dress.  Above the knee so it's like a smock, or below so it's more of a dress?  I'm sure that DD2 will let me know her preference!!

Talking of the weather, I took this photo yesterday, early evening when I took Jess for a walk.  The sun came out yesterday afternoon and it was sunny and warm, but as the afternoon started to slide into evening, grey clouds started to gather and obscured the sun, except the sun was making a valiant effort to show it was still there:

I'm off to do some more hooky stuff now.  Hopefully I'll be able to finish the squares within the next week and will then tackle the job of making and attaching the skirt.