Okay sewing friends, new favorite pattern alert!

It’s twirly.  It’s comfy.  It has a ballet back.

This is the Janie dress by Hayley of Mouse House Creations.  And the version you see here is only one of several variations you could make with this pattern.  We love options, amiright?

For my Coco, I made the gathered skirt with ballet back and long sleeves- though I cut a few inches off the sleeve because I’m into this “cropped long sleeve” that I’ve been seeing  around lately.

I made a size 5 (Corinne is a tall and lean 4 1/2 year old) and I’m really loving the fit on her.  But, let’s talk about this darling back neckline… it’s just so sweet on her little bony body!  I’m dying…

I used a fantastic cotton lycra knit from Peek-a-boo pattern shop.  This was my first time ordering from Amy, and along with this dark teal (i’m currently obsessed with this shade of blue!), I purchased a dark coral and a mustard color… All fabrics are vibrant in color, nice and stretchy, but also sturdy.  Sewing with it went as smoothly as I could’ve hoped.

Oh, I should mention that I didn’t completely follow the neckband instructions.  Once I added the neckband, I felt like it was too wide for a delicate little dress, so I then folded the neckband down towards the front and topstitched.  I’d say this looks more like a leotard neckband would be finished…

A little hard to see in the photo, but I’m really happy with it.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might’ve seen another version I made for big sister Ellery that has an un-gathered skirt and a cowl neck.  Really hoping I can convince Ell to let me take some pics of it on her because it’s pretty sweet!

Speaking of big sis, she gets SO into Christmas- last week when I brought out our decorations and wrapping stuff, she immediately started wrapping up “presents” for the family and putting them under the tree.  Coco asked if she could open hers, so Ellery handed her the giant gift bag with 25 pieces of tissue paper, and Coco got SO excited.  She pulled out an old little pair of her own sunglasses, held them up, and said “ugh… this is a WE-GIFT!!!” and threw them back in the bag.

Coco is working on getting thsoe R’s right!  Anyway, it was adorable.

Let’s end this post with a  few classic Coco faces.  She is incredibly silly and I had to weed through about 50 goofy poses and expressions to get some pics for the blog.

Thanks for reading!

-Erin