Happy Easter!

Edwardian is the theme for Olivia's Easter dress this year. Her coat comes from an antique pattern I purchased several years ago. I have seen this style listed in 1910 and 1912 magazines, so it's comes from around that time period. I originally sewed this coat up about 3 years ago. It is a size 7 and even at that, it's still a bit big on Olivia who is 8 years old. She was very happy to be able to wear it today. I finished up the coat with sewing on the button and making the buttonhole, along with a hook and eye for inside the coat, so not too much work was left on it to get it ready for today. ;) I did learn, at least with some of the antique patterns, you are suppose to measure the model with their garments on, unlike today, where we measure in as little as possible. It's always interesting to learn the little unique qualities of patterns from years gone by.

The dress is a reproduction pattern from Vintage_Pattern_Lending_Library that I purchased several years ago. It's a size 4 so I did have to grade up the pattern, but it's such a basic pattern, it was an easy adjustment.


The hat Olivia is wearing I purchased from a seller and fellow member of Sense and Sensibility Patterns forum. I figured the hat frame must be from about the 1940's. When I was taking off the old adornment of a wired flower wreath, it had a small tag on it and it reads, "Made in Occupied Japan"! :D That means it was made during the time of 1945-1952 when the US occupied Japan. Neat little piece of history. I have kept the wreath for now, but Olivia's hat looks much better and fresher with new flowers adorning her hat. I also added two ribbon flowers that I made, being inspired by my silk flower class that I took at Expo this past February. One is pink and the other is an apple green colour, but you can't see the green one in this picture.

The hat really isn't Edwardian, but it's Edwardian inspired. To be a bit more true to the Edwardian period, I should have had a cloche style hat, which Olivia has, but she really wanted this one, since she remembered that's why I purchased this hat in the first place. So, we worked with what we had that was inspiring for Olivia. She had fun picking out the assortment of flowers to purchase so I could make the wreath for her new hat. Here are some pictures from an Old 1912 Ladies Home Journal magazine that I have to give you a more accurate look at hats from that time period.


She was one very happy girl to get to wear this coat, dress and hat. I love making things for my children to wear, especially when they have such joy in wearing them.

I hope you all had a blessed Easter!

Carol