A couple of months back my two ready made granddaughters asked me to make them each a dress. Of course I was delighted to but as it was the first item of clothing I’d made for them I did want it to be right. They recently reminded me and asked when they would be ready, I rashly promised them for Easter, not realising at the time that Easter was only two weeks off!

The youngest one is 6 and just requested something pretty and pink. I spotted the perfect fabric in B&M Fabrics in Leeds. It’s cotton with lots of hearts in varying shades of pink, very pretty.

I had looked in the pattern books and not seen anything that jumped out, so I had a look on line, as at least with a child’s pdf pattern you’re not going to have dozens of pages to print out. I remembered seeing Little Lizard King mentioned on facebook a few times so I had a look and they have some lovely designs. I chose the Albany for H as it was a basic pinafore dress with flutter sleeves.

It went together very easily, the instructions and the pattern were great. I lined the dress with a pink batik from my stash. I bought some smartie buttons in the palest of pinks but they were just too big when I got them home…so I looked in my stash! Why did I not look there first! I had some ideal pink and white heart shaped buttons.

Initially I stitched the white buttons on the back, however I then added some pretty pockets which needed a button on to finish them off, the pink ones were just a bit too big so I swapped them for the white ones. The pocket pattern is from Tie Dye Diva, it’s free and it’s so cute!

I’d decided not to add the sewn in sash as per pattern as it looked like it would be quite bulky and structured, fine when it’s say a party dress or a bridesmaid, but I wanted this more as a pretty summer dress so I bought some satin ribbon and stitched a belt loop on the side seams so she can wear it with or without the sash.

I think that definitely covers pretty and pink! We visited them yesterday and she loves it.