labels

The satin labels I had custom printed have finally arrived. I really love how they look in each dress. 

 

nineteen

I will post more about this dress later, but wanted to get a few images up of my lastest creation. This one is sized on the smaller size for an 18 month old.

seventeen + eighteen

My husband's parents have always been generous with their excitement for the things I am doing. When they heard about Little Grey Line I could tell they loved the idea and the next time I saw them they brought a bag full of perfect shirts with them! 

I decided to start with this summer-plaid shirt because we will all be going to the beach for a week at the end of July and I wanted the cousins to wear something made from their grandfather's shirt. There are three cousins: Adeline, Tucker (2 1/2), and Reagan (9 months) so I used the shirt to make coordinating outfits. 

A full-skirt dress for Adeline with thick shoulder straps and an opening on the back made from the button placket off the front of the shirt. 

A coordinating dress for Reagan using the plaid fabric for the bodice and denim for the skirt.  (She wears a size 12 months, so this dress is a little small for the dress form as you can see.)

And for sweet Tucker, who I didn't want to leave out, I decided to make a simple belt from the plaid shirt. 

 

My sister-in-law has a great camera so I will certainly update this post once we have some photographs of the cousins on the beach together. I can't wait to see them all in their clothes and I know their grandparents will be pretty excited, too.

sixteen

Another fine dress shirt lost to an elbow blow-out! As with dress fifteen, this shirt was in great shape except for the worn fabric at the elbow. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the color is beautiful. It's a subtle mint color with a simple gingham pattern.

Since this would be going to the same little girl as dress fifteen, I wanted to make a completely different style. I decided to use the pocket on the front of the shirt as the driving force behind the design and kept it located in the center of the dress. (The pattern of the pocket fabric and the shirt fabric are actually matched so perfectly that it's almost hard to see the pocket in these photos!) This placed the button placket on the right side of the dress.

 

I added a bit of fabric to the pattern on either side of the dress so I could gather the sides a bit for a better fit at the arms but still allow for more fullness in the body. A button piece from one of the cuffs was used for the shoulder opening on the right side to make it as easy as possible to get on and off. I kept the box pleat from the back of the shirt as the back of this sweet dress.

fourteen

This past week I kept looking at all of the shirts my Granddaddy gave me and noticed that one in particular was perfectly suited for a special 4th of July dress for Adeline.  

The colors were perfect and I really liked that they were a bit deeper than the primary red and blue of the traditional holiday colors. The shirt is very soft and fairly thin so it was also perfect for today's extremely high temperature.

I didn't push the envelope with the design of this dress-- it's basically just a version of dress one. I figured that wasn't really the point. I just wanted something soft and cool for her to wear and for it to be a shirt worn by my grandfather, a veteran of WWII, well that just makes it even better on this day of celebration!

thirteen

This shirt belongs to my dear, dear friend's husband. She and I met fifteen years ago (unbelievably) when we ended up in the same sophomore architecture studio. It has been my honor to get to know her over the years and watch her become an amazing woman, skilled architect, and incredible mother. We had dinner last week and she brought me this shirt to transform into a dress for her nearly three year old daughter. The colors are really beautiful with a pattern of thin lines in purples, greys and dark blue.

You know she's a true friend because when I asked her what kind of style she wanted, she told me to design the dress any way I wanted.... which says a lot considering she is a designer herself. Knowing her as I do, it was instantly clear to me that she would want a simple silhouette but with a few subtle details to make it special and unique. 

I came up with a new design which I was confident she would like, but the issue was that I had never made it before (though it is derived from dress four). When I created my pattern and it was time to cut the shirt, I got nervous. This is the most stressful part of the process for me when I am making something for someone else because I desperately do not want to make a mistake and cut the fabric incorrectly. There is only so much fabric and they have put their trust in me that I will deliver something wearable-- not a heap of ill-cut scraps! So, for this particular dress, because it means so much to me and because I didn't want to mess it up, I decided to actually make a mock-up of the dress out of one of my extra white dress shirts. 

Yes, I did. 
For those who know me, this should not be surprising. It has to be perfect. Especially if I am making it for someone else. It took extra time, but it was worth it in the end because I figured out a lot of issues that I was able to correct with the real shirt. 


The design of the dress started with a desire to keep the button placket on the side of the dress. Additionally, unlike dress four, I wanted to use only two pattern piece for simplicity. This meant I would basically have two side pieces that would join at seams in the front and the back. I added extra width to the sides that would join in the front and kept the sides that would join at the back fitted. 

With the extra fabric that ended up at the front of the dress, I made a symmetrical knife pleat at the neckline to add shape and interest, then I top stitched four rows of a thin grey line to reinforce the pleats and give a little nod to the name of my line. 

Update: A few photos of the dress worn by its new owner!

clothing labels

I ordered my first batch of clothing labels today!  

The company said it will take two weeks for the production of the custom labels and I can't wait for them to arrive. They will be white satin with "little grey line" printed in grey with a center fold which means it will hang down horizontally once I sew them into the collar seam. (I could also sew them vertically into the side seam if I want the label to show on the outside.) What a difference a label will make.... this is really starting to feel professional!