A Shirred Strawberry Sundress

The finishing touch is a Band-aid across her upper lip that she insists is a "mustache."

The shirred fabric purchase was a happy mistake. 

A strawberry print, it was hanging out in the remnants bin at 75% off due to a little stain near one edge, but when I bought it I thought that it was a plain quilting cotton. The shirred ends were folded to the inside, so it wasn't until we got back home and I unwrapped the fabric that I saw that it was that same type of pre-shirred fabric that I often see and always think would make a sweet and simple sundress for my kid, but never buy because I know how to shirr fabric on my own sewing machine, only I never do, so how lucky to have a perfect length of that pre-shirred fabric in my hands at the price of only a couple of dollars and one load of wash with Oxy Clean!

One wiggly-kid measurement and one clean-finished seam later--

--that same wiggly girl was very happy, indeed:

To her dismay, I did insist that we add shoulder straps, although when I changed their name to "shoulder pretties" and got out my stash of lace bits for her to choose from, she changed her tune enough to help me sew on the finishing touches:

And then she gave it a good, thorough try-out:

If it's good enough to rollerblade in, then it's good enough for me!