Anya as fashionishta

Anya finally had a chance to wear the tunic I sewed for her several weeks ago. This past weekend we went to a wedding and she wore the tunic* there along with the red sweater I made for her. It made for a smashing ensemble, if I do say so.

*Did I even share anything about this little frock on Mad Knitting? I may have forgotten. The pattern is Burda 9655 (here it is on Pattern Review), which includes a dress version of what Anya is wearing and a pair of pants with a side zipper and little ruffles on the bottom. I made a pair of the pants for Anya a year ago and she never wore them. They did sort of look like PJs so I don't entirely blame her….

I've used Burda patterns for a few things for my kids. The instructions aren't great, but so far everything I've made has been simple enough for me to figure out. I've also been pretty happy with the fit of everything I've made, and that says a lot. I've recently been browsing the Burdastyle online store and I'm tempted to try out some of the digital patterns if I can ever catch up with the backlog of projects I want to do first.

Other large pattern companies (coughcoughSIMPLICITYcoughcoughMCCALLS) really suck at sizing. I don't care how many $1 pattern sales certain big box craft stores have in the future, I'm not buying those brands again because everything turns out giant everywhere except for weirdly tight necklines. I recently donated a whole stack of unused patterns to the thrift store because I was tired of them taking up valuable shelf space and making me feel guilty for having bought them in the first place.

I do not know if Anya will wear this more than a handful of times. For one thing, she is growing like a weed (as all 6yo children do), and for another, she considers this a dress up item, so she will only wear it for special occasions like weddings and piano recitals.

That's okay. It's worth the trouble to get a few pictures like these.

This picture takes my breath away. When did she get so big?