Bobbie's Fiona Dress

Finished the dress today. I shrunk it down from the pattern called Fiona in the Cool Crochet book (I love that book, in case you hadn't noticed; yept it's the same one I got the wire jewelry inspiration from). Here's the original dress:
This dress is my main reason for buying the book, actually. It's a great dress, and actually made out of (light) worsted weight yarn, even if it does call for tiny hooks.

I made Bobbie's Fiona dress out of yellow yarn that she chose from my yarn closet. It's the yellow sport weight yarn I used for the round baby blanket. Specifially, Lion Brand Pound of Love yarn. It's thicker than most sport weight yarn I'm used to, but it's soft, and for crying out loud I was able to make (half) a blanket and a dress out of it, and I still have some left! I think I spent something like $6 for it. Great deal.

The pattern in the book, like I said, calls for pretty small hooks. E & F, if memory serves. I know small hooks make for a fine fabric, and it's undoubtedly better to have itty-bitty stitches for an unlined dress like this, but I just don't have the patience. I used a G hook. So, smaller yarn but a bigger hook. I'm odd that way.


Here are the photos of Bobbie in her dress:


Cute, huh? I do need to straighten it out, maybe even block it. I had it all scrunched up in my lap just before these photos were taken, trying to finish it up before bedtime. She loves it when I make her things. Took a few days to crochet, but wouldn't have taken nearly as long if I'd put more effort into it. It makes a pretty sundress, I think. I like my daughters in yellow.

The dress is 90% straight DCs. That's what makes it so simple. The sort of spiderweb pattern at the top was a lot easier than it looked, but it involved trebles, which are my personal bane. I just can't make them flow as quickly as I can the other stitches. But I like the pattern stitch enough I can see myself using it to edge a shawl or baby blanket.

The straps are sc. Kind of an interesting technique there, make the chain, then sc back down it, then ch 2 to get around the "side" and sc'ing back up the other side of the chain. Lots of baby bootie patterns use a similar technique. It's not one I'd have thought to use on my own, but I like the effect it gave.

Other than using a different yarn and hook, and of course making it for a 3.5 year old, I stuck pretty much to the pattern for the dress. I get a kick out of shrinking stuff down like that. Too many patterns for baby & toddler clothes are just repetitive and, well, insipid. I have to be careful not to make something too sophisticated for a little girl, but I think this turned out well.

My next clothes project will be shrinking down a skirt pattern and maybe one of the halter top patterns from the same book for Linda. But I will have to measure her again I think; I'm not positive what I did with her measurements. It'll probably be a day or two before I even get started on that, to be honest.

I'm working on another sculpture. It is more abstract than what I've made in the past, more symbolic than exact, and more birth art. More than that I won't say til I'm done, which should be tomorrow. I actually took a break for a few hours from Bobbie's dress to work on the sculpture yesterday, which is how it is close to being finished already.