Wednesday 6 April 2011

Japanese school dress

Yesterday I made a dress version of the pretty Japanese top I wrote about here, in school uniform colours.  O's school allow either light blue or navy blue gingham for the summer dresses, so when I saw this two-tone gingham cotton at Shaukat for only £3.50 a metre I did actually shriek with excitement.  I think it's meant for men's shirts, but it is perfect for school uniform as well.

Neck bow detail

The dress version of this pattern is so simple in its design - I really love that.  Very un-fussy.  I used narrower bias tape for the neck this time, which I think works a little better.  It makes for a narrower bow.

Another change I made was to cut the front in one piece rather than two.  I then made a placket for the neck, which saved having to match up all the gingham squares down the front seam (which to be honest I probably wouldn't have had the patience to do anyway).

I hemmed the dress with ribbon, to give it a little more interest, and because I know O loves anything to be trimmed with ribbon.  In a very small way I also get a kick out of the little element of rebellious satisfation there is in making an item of uniform with a little touch of individuality to it.

Ribbon hem

She loves it, and pranced off down the road to school swishing her new dress and looking very pleased with herself.

Livvy's new school dress

New school dress

10 comments:

  1. We'll be in summer dresses here soon, I hope - but ours are not so stylish!

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  2. Wow, the dress is fantastic. O is a lucky girl!

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  3. Fabulous! And sooo much nicer than ordinary school uniform. K x

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  4. Very smart using the placard instead of trying to match. Very pretty and summery:)

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  5. I just realized I put placard???...LOL...then I had to think about it and I think it's also a term for the same type of opening. Oh well:)

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  6. It is beautiful and doesn't look anything like a "uniform". Very stylish!

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  7. Very pretty dress. very pretty girl. K is too big now and I miss the move to summer uniform. xx

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  8. That dress looks so smart in the gingham. It is the perfect school uniform.

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  9. I wish my school uniforms had been so stylish!

    I'm loving your series of walks too, by the way. Thank you.

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