Matchy Matchy

I made Penny and Lulu their first matching dresses. I delayed this for a long time, having had lots of matching (monogrammed! because we had the same initials!) outfits growing up with my sister. We had wool sweaters and Halloween costumes and so many dresses my maternal grandmother sewed for us and my paternal grandmother bought for us. Being the little sister, I got the wear them twice, the bigger size passed down to me in future years. Now that I have two girls and they actually get excited by having the same dress (at least at the ages they are now), I just can't resist.

I made two dresses from Simplicity 1207. This pattern is a total win for me for 2 reasons: 1. It's vintage (though reproduction, so I don't have to worry about cutting/not cutting, and preserving the tissue like with my real vintage patterns). 2. It's cheap (as I go to the $1 pattern sale at Joann and buy 2 of them: one to use now, and one to preserve, if it works out and I might want to make it again, and I dooooo). The pattern has an adorable scalloped yolk that I wanted to sew perfectly, so I actually top stitched the linen yoke together with the pattern piece, then tore it away, once completed. So nice! The fabric is "Little Visitors" in Cloud 9's Cosmic Convoy Collection. The small alien fuzzballs reminded me of Penny and Lulu, cute and chatty and busy. That's exactly what they were one morning in Wallace Park.

When we got home for lunch, I attempted to take their dresses off, preserving them from strawberry juice and other inevitable lunchtime stains. Penny wouldn't do it, and when I told her she could put on something really comfy for nap time, she said the sweetest thing: "But Mama, I want to look at this dress before I fall asleep!!" Oh dear, that's just what I needed to hear to make you 10 more homemade dresses to match your sister, or not.

The dresses only really lasted one wear. They both have stains that I can't get out with soaking or hand washing or stain remover. But that's the crux of sewing for kids, right? There's a shelf life to the garments, and it's very, very short. Still, they'll wear them again to daycare, where they will get paint and marker and dirt on them. Penny and Lulu play together in the back yard there. I think it will make their teachers chuckle, to see their matchy matchy.