When I look at it I can see the tonnes of love, thought and planning, and the year-long series that were all part of the journey to complete this dress.
This is the finale dress in the Take One Dress 2014 series I hosted  last year. There's a full round-up and details here.
In the last Take One Dress post, by Olga at Kid Approved, see here, she set me the challenge of sewing something inspired by this dress. 

My sewing brain headed off in a million directions!
A coat! A matching dress! Some winter shorts! Accessories! The lot. But as usual, I'm big on ideas and short on time.

It was the idea of a winter landscape, that floating figure, and a border print that I loved most, and which formed the basis for my creation. I also decided to sew a dress pattern I've had my eye on for a while, the Franklin dress by Brooklyn Pattern Company- which gently references the 'inspiration' dress with its three-button yoke.

The trees are faced with iron-on interfacing with exposed raw edge,  but the panel as a whole is seamed on to the skirt as I wanted a 'cleaner' line across the skirt. That meant a lot of fabric manipulation, which is hard to explain. (I had to pull the house and tree through a gap in the seam, and iron in place). It was no easy feat. Simply getting that little yellow window in place as the one splash of colour, before I applied the whole piece, was tricky.

The grey panel also forms a hem facing - sadly I forgot to take a pic, (and yes I know, there are tonnes of other pictures. Did I mention I love this dress?..). This means I can let the hem down a bit, which I probably will do, it's a little short. That's my fault, I cut it short, thinking I might sew a 'tunic' but then changed my mind.

 I've been thinking a lot about why I love this dress.

1. The colour! I am seduced by colour, whenever I try to go 'neutral' it doesn't work. This is a real peacock teal blue. It looks great on Missy.
2. It  appeals to my unashamed nostalgia... 
3. ...and a love of Nordic art and style. My very first post on this blog was about Carl Larsson, secretly I want Missy to look like she's just stepped out of a Swedish wooden cottage. Or perhaps stomping through the woods, on a magical adventure that might include a Gruffalo.

A Gruffalo? Oh look.... guess what happened when wearing this dress...(keep going.. to find out)

This dress had a special outing recently, when our small town was lucky enough to have a visit from  children's book superstar, Julia Donaldson, author of the Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, Snail and the Whale and so much more.

She gave a lovely story-telling session that captivated the children.

And Missy, gamely got on stage to be a 'sheep'. Here she is, on stage with Julia and other 'volunteers' from the audience.

Missy had one line; "Baaa"... It got to her turn, Julia pointed at her to 'bleat', Missy drew breath, paused to remember what her line was, and made everyone giggle when with all her gusto she burst out; "Neigh!"