This past summer, I crocheted DGD-1.5-years, a halter, which is a large circle in the front, with 2 chained straps for the shoulders and 2 more, for the back waist. Ddil said that Dson thought it was way too revealing for a baby girl. I told her she can wear it over a blouse or shirt. So I got to thinking about the Granny squares bodice pattern, for DGD, with the attached fabric skirt. I went to:
http://www.ravelry.com and I looked at fabric bodice crocheted patterns, with attached fabric skirts. I realized how the Granny square dresses, with straps OR ties, ARE TOO REVEALING!
So Dson would NOT like that.
I found a pattern, from HGTV, which has an empire shell-stitch sleeveless dress top pattern. It's especially good, too, because it lists 2-T size, which my Granny bodice pattern just states, it fits up to size 3. I'd feel terrible to make a Granny squares bodice dress and Dson disapproving of it. I printed up the HGTV pattern. Also,
I realized the similarity of how any empire crocheted dress pattern bodice, may be used for the fabric-skirt-type patterns, too. I have 1 pattern, which is a sleeveless dress, and it snaps closed in back. It'll be good for fabric dress skirts, too.
One thing, which I find confusing is this: The Granny square pattern designer, who's pattern I was going to originally make, states to use the similar yarn and fabric combination. Example: If your yarn has linen in it- use linen fabric or linen-blend fabric. If your fabric is cotton or cotton blend- use a cotton or cotton blend yarn. But then, 1 pattern states how you can use ANY sport yarn, which, to me, means acrylic, and in their example on-line, they sew the skirt on by hand. They did not differentiate that sport yarn needs to match the certain type of fabric. I'm thinking now,
how, if I crochet in sport yarn or baby sport yarn, it must be "OKAY" to sew the sport yarn bodice to any type of cotton blend fabric, too. So, I'm just going to "go for it" and do what looks good, what feels right, and I won't be making the barely-there Granny squares pattern now. The bodices, which are sleeveless empires have more coverage, too. They also can be used as jumpers, as well as sun dresses. Another thing, I love about this is, the sizes/inches are listed and it's not all "guess-work", like the Granny squares pattern has me to do. I won't need to have Ddil measure DGD's chest now. I'm very happy with my decision.