pockets for lila

Lila turned 2.5 last week and is now officially uninterested in my opinion when it comes to getting dressed. She has some unconventional ideas, such as Monday’s outfit, which included a pair of tights wrapped around her waist “for a belt.” On our errands that morning the tights fell off, either at the library or the grocery store – we went back looking for them, but no luck. I guess that’s the price you pay for fashion.

It’s fun to watch her sense of style develop, but I always secretly hope she’ll choose the things I’ve made. One thing we agree on is pockets. She mostly loves them for their capacity to hold treats, but she also likes to gather pennies and acorns and other grubby treasures, and pockets are perfect for that. There are so many fun pocket variations out there (Oliver + S patterns are great for collecting cute pockets), and I love how they can transform the ordinary into something special. Plus pockets give you something to do when you’re standing around, which is maybe not so important for little kids, but it’s great practice for when you become a socially awkward adult.

So anyway, a couple months ago another mother approached me (and not vice-versa of course, because I’m socially awkward) at the park and we started chatting about sewing and kids clothes. She told me about a little girls’ dress she’d seen online and fallen in love with – a blue jumper with rickrack around the pocket, made by Olive’s Friend Pop. I consider myself fairly well versed in kid fashion, but I had never heard of Olive’s Friend Pop, and I was intrigued. She kept trying to describe the dress to me, then finally just pulled out her phone and showed me this photo. Oh boy, I loved it too.

Here’s my knock off of the Olive’s Friend Pop Agnes dress, with its rickrack adorned kangaroo pocket.

Two hands in the same pocket! A brand new pocket experience.

I used a jumper pattern I had on hand for the general shape of the dress and made some modifications for the straps and top. The hardest part was getting the rickrack around the tight corners of the pocket, but after five or so attempts, I finally got the hang of it.

The fabric is a Moda Bella solid and it’s lined it with a print from Moda’s Just Wing It collection. I found the scalloped buttons at Joanns.

Aside from Lila’s Halloween costume last year, I’ve never really just looked at something and tried to reproduce it. I like it when things work out the first time around, so I prefer to use a pattern and follow good, detailed directions. But this design was so simple (it’s all about the pocket, really) that I thought I’d give it a try. And yes, this is my second try at the dress – I used pinwale corduroy the first time, and I faced it instead of lining the whole thing, so it ended up kind of floppy. Not to mention it was too big, and the buttonholes were too low, and so on and so on. But I’m happy with getting it (mostly) right the second time.

Totally unrelated to anything, but I have to share: As we were getting into the car this morning Lila proclaimed, “I love seam rippers!”

Yes dear, I love them, too. Just ask that dress you’re rubbing into the driveway.

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