back to school dress

Well, she’s not actually going to school, but she gets awfully caught up in the excitement. She loves wearing a backpack and carrying around her brothers’ lunch boxes. She loves waving when she spots biggest brother coming out of the building and greets him with a big hug. She loves fetching big brother from preschool and visiting the bunny, Matilda.  Biggest brother wears a uniform and big brother wears, well, the messiest ugliest clothes we can find to his messy, arty school. So who else can I do back to school sewing for?

Nothing says back to school to me like denim. This is a designer denim I picked up on Fabric Row. The golden flower buttons are from Joann and reminded me of the gold snaps on jeans. I was in need of a quick, easy, but nevertheless satisfying project. I turned to the Music Box jumper. I whipped this up for the first time last fall to meet a last minute Halloween deadline. This one came together just as quickly and easily, but looks polished and sweet. I love the result to effort ratio on this dress.

It can be easily layered and I made it plenty long so she can wear it next year too. The bodice and pocket flaps are lined with a navy broadcloth to reduce bulk. I also added tiny in seam pockets for the first time. She needed some help from her brother to figure out how to use these pockets and what was hiding inside.

But she liked it!

As you can see, it’s highly compatible with running.

And chasing brothers.

And more running.

In fact, it’s nice to have the buttons detail on the back – it’s almost all I saw of this dress!

This dress was pretty much free, because – and this is perhaps my new favorite trick – I cut it out at the same time I cut a dress for me. This allowed me to really maximize my fabric in a way I couldn’t if I had cut my dress then went back later to try and make the scraps work. I made a Washi dress (coming soon, promise) and this music box jumper size 2T in less than 3 yards of 60” fabric!

Ok, ok, I did have to buy 4 more yellow buttons. And yes, I forgot to hand in my coupon so I spent $1.75 on the dress.

So far, a good start to the school year!