heirloom

While the majority of my work lately has been focused on transforming men's dress shirts, I was recently tasked with a very special request: take these two nightgowns and redesign them into summer dresses. 
  

With the first dress I was inspired to showcase the eyelet fabric located on the bottom of the gown and at the same time I wanted to incorporate the feminine ribbon and lace detail at the neckline in a new way. The result was a simple bodice that meets a slightly gathered skirt trimmed with original lace detail. I repurposed the original shoulder straps from the gown as the ties at the back of the dress. 

For the second dress, I decided to keep the original design of the gown in tact and altered it to fit the new scale of an 18 month old. 

The sweet little girl who will soon wear these dresses will probably have no idea that she's wearing an heirloom, but her grandmother (who originally wore these gowns) and her mother will surely cherish them. It was an honor to work on these truly precious artifacts. 

I am hopeful and excited that these two dresses will open an additional realm of work for Little Grey Line.


UPDATE:  One of the gown dresses didn't fit perfectly so I was able to alter it by redesigning the neckline. The added monogram truly makes the dress in my opinion. 

a dress for a big sister

I have been making a great deal of dresses lately through commissions I have received, but I try to sneak in one for my daughter, Adeline, every chance I get. 

This shirt was one that my husband could no longer wear since losing some weight recently. It is a really beautiful white dress shirt with thin navy blue and purple pin stripes so I wanted to do something special with it. 

Since Adeline will be a big sister in less than two months, I thought it would be fun to make a special dress just for her. Before we found out that our second child would be a boy, I was saving everything I made in case baby number two was a girl. Now that we know Adeline will be our only daughter I feel more comfortable personalizing the things I make for her, thus the monogram.

This dress incorporates a new sleeve design which I really love. I used a portion of the original shirt sleeve, but rotated the seam that is usually located on the underside of the arm to the top to add a new detail. Additionally, I fashioned it into a modified lantern sleeve which is fitted on the upper-arm and then fuller at the fore arm and wrist. 

Adeline wore this dress Saturday to a baby shower my sister hosted for our soon-to-arrive little boy. What special memories I will have of her in this dress. 

two of a kind

These two dresses were made for a pair of friends, Piper and Phebe. Piper's mother is a friend from high school who has been so generous to spread the word about Little Grey Line. During the past two weeks, she has helped me get six orders with more to come thanks to her and her many friends.

Both original dress shirts were really nice to begin with, but I think they make even better dresses!

I really love this classic sundress style because the long straps allow it to be styled in several different ways. 

I delivered these dresses to my friend this morning and her precious daughter couldn't wait to put her new dress on when she saw it after preschool; the best compliment a three year old could ever give me!

Here's beautiful Piper modeling her dress. Many, many thanks to her mother for these pictures and all of the support!