"Legs in the air" challenge

well, with a title like that....!

It's actually more a "show your legs" sewing challenge. Launched by Nathalie, my NSP, so I had to participate, too hard to resist.  The challenge was to sew a skirt or dress (hence the leg showing) by May 10th.

A little while ago I received some clothes sewn by Linou, a web-friend. She had sewn a tunic for her daughter which turned out too small and kindly forwarded it to me, for Alice. But she sent it as a complete outfit; she made matching leggings and a vest with it too. So when this challenge came up, I thought it might be a nice occasion to return the  favour.

So I started out with sewing the 'Giggle' dress, a pattern I was looking forward to sew since receiving the book  Homemade Mini Couture. Once putting it together though, it was quite obvious it'd be too small. It's even a bit tight for Alice..... so I couldn't possibly send it to her, and needed to think of something else. In the meantime I had read that she doesn't actually like sleeveless dresses so I needed to find another idea.

Giggle dress:

Ater a bit of thinking and spending time on Pinterest, I found the Hannah dress pattern which I thought was very cute, but also very fitting as her daughter's name is Hannah. I decided to sew it for Alice first, as a trial run, to be sure that when I started on the real deal I'd not have any difficulties or weird size surprizes....I liked the way it turned out. BUT, she had mentioned in the meantime that she'd already made this pattern for her daughter once, and was going to sew it again soon. So it  felt a little off making something she can obviously make herself, and do a much better job of it than I could, seeing how insanely well she sews.
So I needed another plan....

Hannah dress;

So it had to be a dress with sleeves, and she's fond of pockets. So I thought about a couple of options; the Sally dress , the Louisa dress , the Peuterjurk...but she knows all these patterns...so eventually I went for the unknown and started the 'Susanna dress' from one of my dutch books, and whilst only the skirt still needed to be attached to the bodice...I abandoned it; it just didn't look fun, it was too dressy, too stiff...So yes, I changed my mind - AGAIN (insecure, or indecisive,  me?? ).

Eventually I took the decision to make two dresses.

 I made the Nina dress( (from the book Zelfgemaakte Kleertjes voor Toffe Meisjes) with a fabric I love, from the Belgian designers Soft Cactus. A dress with sleeves, with pockets, so probably a safe choice. She doesn't like zippers so I opted for the kam snap  closure on the back. Wasn't quite sure to go for the blue or orange and asked for some input on this; verdict; both!

 the pockets:

both colours for the snap closure: 

 front & back

And then, following the advice of someone when I "complained" about not being able to sew something nice for this girl, I made a dress I like. With flashy colours, knit fabric and just a dress that's a little different and a bit of fun. No pockets, but sleeves and a hoody. Not one colour, but three different colours and fun sleeves.

 front and back:

details of the sleeves and front of the hoodie

No photos of the dresses being worn obviously, as they're presents, but I hope Linou likes them, that they are the appropriate size, and that her daughter H. will wear them with a lot of joy!

ps. I realised too late that both dresses are yellow...so perhaps I need to make a third one?