Fancy Field Frock Silent Auction for NieNie

As you may have noticed, I have tried to take up the effort in raising funds for the recovery of Stephanie and Christian Nielson. If you haven't heard about this tragedy, Stephanie (of the popular blog The NieNie Dialogues) and her husband Christian were in a plane crash about two weeks ago. They remain in critical condition at Maricopa Burn Center. Christian has sustained burns on over 30% of his body. Stephanie’s body was burned over 80%. Family and friends have started a donation fund to aid in their medical bills (which they estimate will be in the millions) as well as the household expenses while they recover.

I was heartbroken when I read about these events. The couple has four very small children and obviously will have months if not years of recovery ahead of them. You can follow her sister, Jane's, journal of their recovery progress. Gabrielle of the popular blog DesignMom and Kirtsy has urged other bloggers to hold silent auctions and donate the proceeds to their recovery fund. I thought this was a fantastic idea. So I decided to hold a silent auction of a dress I made way back when I was keeping them for myself- The Fancy Field Frock. Sad for me, but for a very good cause.

This is a silent auction so to purchase the dress, just leave your bid in the comments section of this post. If you would like to increase the amount, leave a higher bid in the comment section. By the end of the auction on Sunday August 31st, at 11:59pm EST, the comment with the highest amount will win the dress. Postage will be provided by me.

Once the winner is identified, they'll send the money directly to the Stephanie and Christian fund. Oh and one more thing, check out http://katietimothy.blogspot.com for another auction and cute backstory and keep your eyes open around the blogosphere for more 'Donate to NieNie' silent auctions! Even better, host your own! Here's the frock!

Fancy Field Frock Silent Auction

This dress was inspired by a sweater I had seen in the JCrew line for children. If you thought they charged too much for your clothes you haven't seen what they're charging for your kid's. At any rate, this was inspired by them.

It bears a pleated cotton ruffle around the neckline and sleeves. The shape of the neckline was inspired from Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. I fell in love with the ornate dresses that looked as though they were meant for adults but were worn by the very young.

To offset the dressy look of the ruffles I left the ends unhemmed which left a sort of casual beachy feel. The sleeves have frayed olive green grosgrain ribbons sewn into the seams that tie at the back of the arm. I also added a long row of handmade fabric buttons fastened by handmade loops sewn into the dress.

I named it the fancy field frock since the image of a wild field reminds me the frayed ruffle- rough and unkempt....but still fancy.

This fits a 3T-5T.

As a side note, the creation of this dress went smoother than any I've done before. I'm attributing this to the fact that I carefully planned and wrote out each step before diving into it. A new task that was well worth the time it took, saving me at least one hour on the sofa with the seam ripper.

One more thing, since I've left the edges rough, I would NOT recommend washing this in the washing machine. Dry Clean Only.

You DON'T have to link to this post to bid on this dress but to get the silent auction word out just click on "Create a Link" below.
Create a Link!