Bo Peep Dress

I took these photos before I left for school drop off yesterday and promptly went back inside to put on stockings and boots (I was already wearing a cardigan, as you'll see below).  It was 53 degrees and not going much above the low 60s.  I'm not complaining, but my summer rotation isn't really set up for this!  Things heat up a LOT next week, though.  I'm trying to restrain myself from making a double gauze tunic dress I have planned for the fall.  It doesn't go at all with my color palette this rotation, and it will be wearable for probably 3 days of it.  Don't worry, I'm not going to attempt it right now.  The kids are finishing school on Tuesday, there is a lot of stuff just swirling around me and in my brain, so I don't have the mental space to try a new pattern at the moment.

Back to the dress.  I should probably start by saying that I know this cardigan looks terrible with it.  It is too big on me, and the length is pretty awful for my frame.  I've been looking for a white or off-white cardigan for months now and it is amazingly difficult to find what I'm looking for--something cotton, a basic button up crew neck, not too long in the body.  I've bought these H&M cardigans before, but the sizing is all over the place depending on the color.  My navy and royal blue ones both fit differently from this white and my charcoal gray ones, and they are all the same size.  Fie on you, fast fashion retailers and your sloppy slopers.  But they are one of the few retailers offering 100% cotton cardigans in a somewhat nice shape, so there is that.  <le sigh>

The fabric is from Penny Rose, and I really like their stuff.  I made the girls' strawberry dresses from one of their lines last summer.  Many of their prints have a definite 1930s feel to them, but a lot of it is too juvenile for me to wear.  I decided to take a chance on this print, however, since you can only see what it is up close.  It has Little Bo Peep and some little sheep and flowers scattered in pattern.  I really liked the colors too (it came in a blue colorway that I was very tempted by, but wanted some more red for my summer)  I think it works!  

This is definitely a medium weight cotton, but it is pretty soft and has a decent hand to it.  It also is densely woven enough to repel some liquids--I managed to spill some coffee in my lap at breakfast in the morning and was able to get it off before I took these photos!  

I'm going to keep hunting for a better cardigan to go with this dress and several others I have for my summer that don't have a good match to them.  We have a trip planned to a cooler place this summer so I think I will need some additional layers even if it is disgustingly hot and humid here.

I also went back to Victory rolls this morning, although it didn't really turn out exactly right--I'm kind of out of practice.  I started watching Suite Française on Netflix last night (it is set in rural France in 1940; it is just okay) but I really like Michelle Williams' hair styles in it.  

This is what I actually wore for drop off yesterday morning:

Stockings, boots, cardigan.  Could have used a heavier weight one, but I didn't have time to dig one out this morning.  I recently found the boots on ebay after stalking the site for a few months and thought I wouldn't be able to wear them until the fall!  Ha!

I rewatched the whole Twilight saga again in the last week or two and enjoyed that very much.  I remember when the movies were first in theatres, I was having a baby almost every year at that point, so it became my kind of post-partum tradition there for a while.  My sister and I shared the obsession and I remember calling her after Eclipse came out to discuss it with her, and she made the comment that she thought that it was the best of the movies so far, and that Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart were to the point of just zipping into their Edward and Bella suits and getting on with it.  I think that is exactly true!  Eclipse is also the best book, in my opinion.  Breaking Dawn 1/2 is just the frosting on top of the Eclipse cake, if you ask me.

I even started re-reading the books.  They are hitting me slightly differently this time around, probably because I'm older, and in a different place in my life, but I'm still finding myself thinking a lot about them.  I'll be curious to know if my original thoughts still hold.  I'm about halfway through the first one right now.  

Ponchik wanted to do a photo together before we went back inside after getting off the bus.  She is such a goofball.

Just the facts:

Bo Peep dress: Penny Rose fabrics via fabric.com, Simplicity 1080 (redrafted), elastic, vintage bias tape

Cardigan: H&M

Necklace: my gram's

Earrings: flea market

Stockings: O-Socks from Sock Dreams

Boots: Troopa by Steve Madden via ebay

(sandals in earlier pics are saltwaters)