I bought this little frock for my Australian niece a long time ago.
Somehow it never got sent to her – and she got too big for it.
I gave it to a friend for her daughter.
But she won’t wear it – and it has just come back to me.
I love the mid-century Scandi fabric.
It would make a lovely cushion. There is enough fabric.
I don’t have anyone else with a daughter the right age to pass it on to.
But the question is: is it too lovely as a dress? Is it too nice to cut up?
What would you do?
I fell in love with the print.
It spoke to me from the rack of fusty-smelling garments.
It was in that nice, higgledy-piggledy junk – ahem – antique emporium on Lyme Regis prom.
Its a genuine 1960s shift dress.
A Lilian Quayle model.
It needs a little tlc, like most of the things I buy.
A stitch or two at the neck.
A small adjustment under the arms, to avoid the dreaded gape and consequent unwelcome bra-showing-ness.
But the fabric is soft from its many turns in the wash.
And it flatters.
I think it will be just perfect to wander about in, be-sandalled, when the summer finally gets going.
