Jumper with Fun Pocket

Do you have any favorite clothes from childhood? Sometimes I wonder which pieces my kids will remember. Which ones they'll wear over and over so much that they become emblazoned in family photos and, consequently, never forgotten. And then which ones they'll hold onto in their memories as loved simply because that's what they were. (Perhaps it'll be something I made??).

I, myself, have fond memories of a little dress from my childhood that my mom made me (which I didn't realize until I asked her about it and she said she made it!). And it had a pocket with a little Sesame Street Ernie inside, attached to a string. I LOVED Sesame Street as a kid.

This past summer, we had a live animal show at our local library, and when asked what her favorite animal was, my daughter said, "Turtle!"

Huh.

So when I finally found a jumper tutorial I liked, I wanted to add a pocket and hopefully sew something that my daughter would love. So why not include her favorite animal?

Here she is, Ms. Turtle. I made her out of minky fabric from last year's Christmas-fabric stash.

So she's got a weird back leg (and a dromedary hump). Get over it. She's one-of-a-kind.

It's funny because after I made this dress for my daughter, my son decided he, too, wanted some animal(s) to pop out of his overalls' pocket (you can kind of see him in the picture below, sporting his overalls and reaching out, enviously). I said, sure, what do you want? His response? "Poison dart frogs." Um, do YOU know what those look like? Let me direct you to the August 2007 issue of Ranger Rick magazine (thank you, freecycle). Yes, well, I am not going to show you my blue and yellow felt frog, nor my red and yellow felt frog. At least he's happy.

Now back to the turtle jumper. Yes, this one I like. And my daughter now refers to it (fondly?) as her "turtle dress."(Sigh.)
If you, too, want to make a fun jumper and add your own unique critter, check out the tutorial HERE. Enjoy!

PS: The fabric is thick, heavy corduroy, also from a generous freecyler. At first, I didn't like it so much, but now in dress form? I'm kind of in love.