Princesses Awesome: Girl Dresses that fight ‘pinkification’

In our house, we have a little girl who hates the color pink. She would do anything to not be seen wearing it or associating with it.

It’s nothing that we have encouraged or discouraged. It’s just the way she is.

But try getting her dresses that are not overwhelmingly pink or purple and we have a struggle on your hands.

The majority of dress shops don’t carry anything other than barbie doll prints and cute cuddly animals.

So it is great to note a new project on KickStarter has raised enough funds to continue creating dresses that are anything but.

The project called, Princesses Awesome, is the brainchild of Eva St Clair and Rebecca Melsky for

“a different kind of girly girl because girls shouldn’t have to decide between dresses and dinosaurs, or ruffles and robots”.

and

“Our dresses let girls climb trees, express their interest in dinosaurs, robots, trucks and airplanes – and be princesses”

says Eva St Clair, one of the founders.

If you support this idea, go help fund it: KickStarter Princesses Awesome Project

If you want to feel personally attacked by a collection of knitting and crochet patterns as I was, check out the “90s Mod Inspired” pattern lookbook from Yarnspirations.

It’s actually a great collection of patterns for folks who want to stitch up that Y2K look again (or for the first time). There’s an oversized, striped grandpa cardigan! A (crocheted) plaid messenger bag! A boxy argyle vest, and a rolled hem sweater the likes of which I bought in a store in the ’90s and knit a replica of later.

There’s also a section of “Prep School” patterns (think “Clueless,” they’re even called things like “As if” and “Betty”) including a granny square tie and crocheted wrap skirt, and a knit cabled pullover, beret and cardigan with blocky stripes. Other sections include casual collegiate, punk and mod, and academia.

Some of the patterns repeat among the sections but there’s a nice selection for people who want a little throwback for their back to school and fall wardrobes.

Since I had this sweater, we’ll take a closer look at the Caron Cropped Stripy Sweater. The one I knit from a pattern of my own devising in the mid ’00s was tonal blues, but this one calls for two colorways of Colorama Haze, a fuzzy self-striping worsted weight yarn.

The pattern comes in six sizes, with chest measurements ranging from 39 to 60 inches (that’s 99 to 152.5 cm). Clearly that’s a lot of ease at the lower sizes, since the smallest size is meant to fit an actual chest measurement from 28-34 inches, or 71-86.5 cm.

The sweater is a modified drop shoulder worked flat in pieces and seamed. That means the stripes probably won’t match around the body but it’s still a classic look. This one does have ribbing at the neckline, where the original sweater I owned and my re-creation had rolled hems throughout, but you can do it either way depending on your preference.

Do any of these projects remind you of clothes you might have worn or knit in the past? I’d love to hear about it!

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