A new dress for Ellory...

Yesterday I made a new dress for Ellory.  I wanted to use a pattern that a friend had sent me some time ago as the picture on the front looked quite cute.  Girly enough, but not frilly because Ellory really is NOT a frilly dress sort of girl.  Well first of all the pattern pieces weren't right.  I could see straight away that the sides of the front and back bodice parts did not match.  One was shorter than the other and the shoulders were not the same width either and each sloped in at a different angle.  I am glad that I noticed it before I started cutting out the fabric or I'd have wasted it.  So I made a new bodice front but copied the placement of the 'pleats'....then cut it all out and started sewing.  I didn't like the placement of the pleats one little bit, I don't think they add anything to the bodice, but I did them all the same.  Once I'd finally finished sewing the dress, I tried ironing out the creases that were in the fabric (I'd already done them a couple of times as I went along, without much success)....it had obviously been folded in the fabric shop for some time, because the little buggars wouldn't come out, even with a very hot steam iron!  So I gave up on that.  Then the collar wouldn't lie flat!  And the strange pleats in the sleeves also wouldn't sit nicely!  In the end I just put the dress on her and hoped for the best.  I also added a scrunchy hair band of the same fabric, white socks and nice lime green leather sandals from Boneka in Germany.

As it happens, I'm quite happy now with how it looks on her, Ellory calls it her 'beach ball' dress because she thinks it looks like the coloured beach balls that they sell in the tourist shops in town.  I thought it reminded me of those clove boiled sweets that come in large jars at the sweet shop and they weigh them out for you!!!!  Either way, we both like how colourful it is!

Then because Ellory had been so good modelling for me, she decided to hang out with Lucy, our Miniature Pinscher.  Ellory loves animals and Lucy is very good with her, gentle and not interested in biting (read chewing) her!!!!