Ralph has been reading the “Little House on the Prairie” series of books to Julia and Lydia over the past few months. The girls are intrigued with life in the late 1800′s and see it as a grand adventure, not fraught with all the perils the Ingalls family had to face.
The books reminded Ralph of when she was little and I made Holly Hobbie dresses for her and Tammy. I remember they had little pinafores/aprons as overskirts that were made of an off-white material with window pane design on them. Can’t recall the dresses themselves but they loved to wear them and Ralph thought it was great fun to don that outfit when she went to Silver Dollar City.
Fast-forward 30+ years and now the girls want to be Laura and Mary for Halloween – especially after Ralph told them about the dresses I made for her and her big sister. So when Ralph was here a few months ago, we picked out the material and I promised to deliver the goods in time for Halloween.
Since I couldn’t find a pattern that was exactly what I wanted, I cobbled together parts of three different patterns to achieve the final results. They weren’t difficult – just time-consuming, especially when “operator error” was involved! That, plus the fact that the “one size fits all” child size 3-8 bonnet turned out to big too big for me so I had to rework that pattern.
However, I was pleased with the results and here’s a photo of one of the dresses and a bonnet. 
Of course the dresses look so much cuter when modeled by two darling little girls I know but their parents aren’t big on having their photos sent throughout cyberspace so this photo will have to suffice.
But – if you’re one of my buddies, send me an email and I’ll share a photo.
Trust me, they are darling!!!
