Rainbow Dress

Rainbows are Jenna's favorite thing at the moment. Everything she draws or colors is elevated in her esteem if it has rainbows in it. For her birthday, we made these rainbow cookies, even though they had nothing to do with the Rapunzel theme. They made her grin so wide.

I'd wanted to make Jenna a dress for her birthday so she'd have something new and handmade to wear. When I asked her what kind of dress she'd like, she said "A rainbow dress" and wouldn't elaborate on the design, other than that "I like the rainbow stripes." Nothing came to mind so I sat on it (like everything else). I only knew that I was not about to applique rainbows, clouds or anything motif-y on the dress, nor was I going to be sewing rainbow-stripe trim or doing any rainbowy embroidery.

Then I saw Meg's beautiful rainbow dress and showed it to Jenna. And she smiled and got very excited. Lovely!

So last week - long past her birthday - I made her Rainbow Dress. Well, in the summer it could be a dress, but it's a pinafore for the cold months now. Part Wimbledon, part cheerleader, part carnival, it's something you have to be four years old to carry off. Technically, it is my favorite dress to date - all those clean, clean lines and old-fashioned styling!

Here's the front

and the back.

I used white stretch twill and fully lined it with cotton. Because the pinafore buttons at the shoulders, facing the whole garment was easy.

There's a faced drop-waist band

and a full skirt of inverted box pleats.

In spite of being very enthusiastic during the construction stages, Jenna was not very excited about wearing it when it was finished. She explained that it was because the dress was white and "white is not in the rainbow and I like the colored parts but I don't like the white parts".


So I told her that it was actually a Cloud Dress that had a Secret Rainbow in it. When she was still, the rainbow was hidden,

but when she started to twirl, the rainbow peeked out

and yelled Hello! to the sky.

Like this - see?

And that brought her smile back, like sunshine after the rain.

P.S. When she accessorizes this dress with her her dangly necklaces, bracelets and dressy slippers, I swear I've been transported back to the 60's.

P.P.S. Never mind that this particular rainbow has only 6 colors, which I'm glad Jenna hasn't noticed. The girl notices everything.