The story of this cotton dress/tunic for my 8-year-old niece comes from two previous ones. Years ago, I thought it was pretty amazing that she was still wearing the red Little Sister's Dress I made when she was a baby (about 10 months here) well over a year later. So I was inspired to make a similar dress, the green 'Sweetheart' which she started wearing at age two. I was so happy to see she was still wearing it three years later. But get this: another three years on, she still wears the old green one as a top.
Now she is eight, and has a new dress. It's about knee length, and it probably won't take long before it's technically more of a tunic.
I don't know how long it might be before she decides it's a bit young for her, but I think it should fit for a while. The buttons are maybe a bit little-girly but they can be changed. I actually wanted either a matching dark pink or maybe a strong blue to pick up one of the colours in the contrast stripe yarn.
The contrast stuff was a souvenir ball bought in Japan.
The pattern - Fiona's Top by Sanne Bjerregaard - actually only goes up to a size 6, but I did use a slightly heavier yarn than the pattern specifies. It's 4ply Bendigo cotton in a carefully checked-with-Miss B dark pink. For that is how she likes her pink. I did add some stitches before joining front and back, to make a better shaped armhole, but I also did one less increase round than the pattern called for, because it just didn't need that much fullness.
While the freshly washed finished garment was hanging in my house, I found it such a curious piece of knitting. It's just on an unfamiliar scale. Too small for me, but much bigger than any kids/babies items I've made. Quite a decent chunk of knitting!
1 comment:
Beautiful ad always from you! And she looks lovely in it too. I will look forward to seeing how she wears it in another 3 years. Also, Miss L may inherit ir and give it a new life in Melbourne. Ily ma
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