Clothes that create smiles: the Groove Dress.

By Victoria As-it-Seams - 03:32

Clothes make me happy. Sewing makes me more happy. And I love it when that happiness is spread around.
When my Missy skips down the street, I see her make strangers smile.
I think it's her joy at being six years old, which is unbearably precious, and quite rare, which is quite simply infectious.

Certainly she makes me smile all the time (and drives me a bit crazy too).



And I like to think that it's the clothes that spread smiles too.
I mean, who could not help but smile at this overdose of pandas? 
Especially when these pandas are swinging around on an A-line dress with a super-duper amount of swing to it. 



These gorgeous pandas were a gift by fabric company Poppy to all the participants in the London Sew Social, back in the spring. (Yes, I know, I take forever to sew and blog). The delay was partly because I was a teeny bit scared. I'm a novice with knit fabrics. I don't have an overlocker/serger (yet) and fumble around with my very simple machine. 
But because I joined the 'groovement' and sewed an ever-so-simple Groove dress, by Made it Patterns, even a knit-wit-novice like me could create something super cute and wearable.


Don't look too carefully, you'll see that hem rippling. 



The groove dress is an A line swing dress, but I didn't have quite enough fabric to get a full groove on. I had to tone down the angles of the dress, so this has less fullness than a proper Groove Dress. It's a panda 'groovette'.
I think, though, because this fabric has a substantial weight to it, the loss of fullness doesn't impact too much. 


Isn't this hat also adorable? It was a gift from a friend and is an original vintage velvet beret, I'm guessing from the 1950s. 
It's just gorgeous, and red and mustard! I would never have thought it, but when Missy ran off after barely two seconds posing for photos, we headed into town for Saturday shopping. She skipped along the pavement in her red beret, mustard pandas and I swear I could see random strangers smiling... 







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5 comments

  1. I love this dress, she is really perfect

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  2. She definitely made me smile and so did you 😊😍

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  3. I too would smile seeing your daughter skip down the street in her cool panda goovette and the red beret! Perfect colour combo :) Sewing with knits is the best once you work out the best settings for your machine!

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  4. What a sweet dress. My girls would go crazy over those pandas~~~

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Victoria