First Day Of School Joey Dress

After two months of not sewing a stitch, it definitely took me a while to find my groove again, but I can now happily report that I'm back!  I'm filled with ideas of what I'd like to sew and a bit sad already knowing that I won't be able to get everything done before school obligations start up again.  In the meantime, though, if there's one thing that I'm focused on it's sewing the basics.

Yeah, yeah, basics can seem a bit boring to make but I happen to find them rather exciting because I know that they'll always be worn (as opposed to the many dresses that I've sewn for myself that mostly hang out in the back of my closet).

And the first basic that I needed to make, of course, was a first day of school dress for O.  I contemplated making something a bit more "special occasion" for this special occasion but practicality won out and for me there are few things more practical than a long-sleeved knit dress for a girl (assuming your girl likes to wear dresses, that is).  My go-to knit dress in the past was the Oliver and S Hopscotch dress but O has grown out of my copy of the pattern and while I debated just buying the larger size, I figured that this was probably a good opportunity to branch out a bit.  So branch out I did - with the Joey Dress by Make It Perfect patterns.

You've no doubt seen many versions of this dress around the internet (in both kids and adult sizes!) and I loved the little details that the dress allowed for.  A kangaroo pocket and contrast bindings?  Sign me up!  As an added bonus I didn't even have to spring for new fabric for the dress because I had enough Art Gallery knit left over from the girls' Christmas pjs.

The dress sewed up super-easy although I should probably confess that there were times that I didn't use the instructions since I feel pretty confident sewing with knits.  I should also confess that I didn't look at the size recommendations and just sewed up a size 6 for O (who is 6).  She's a slim little thing and may have benefited from a smaller size but I couldn't bring myself to buy the size 5 version of the pattern since that's the biggest size on that version and I figured that I would want to make this dress for many years to come.  And, as it turns out, I was right.

So happy first day of school O!  First grade, here she comes!