The narrator, with brown skin and dark hair, has a "favoritest dress ever" that she wears on her favorite day of the week (Tuesday)...but one day, it's too small! She asks her mama to make something out of it, and voila...it becomes a ruffly shirt. The pattern continues, with the original dress being remade into a shirt, skirt, scarf, socks, hair bow, and finally a piece of art.

A sweet story that will resonate with anyone who's ever grown out of a favorite item of clothing. Julia Denos' artwork makes the story sing, with plenty of sewist touches - even some of the text looks stitched.

See also: Joseph Had A Little Overcoat by Simms Taback ( )

A fun and fashionable read! Also contains lessons on not getting upset about small things, fixing problems, and reusing material! ( )

Distraught when her favorite dress, always worn on her favorite day (Tuesday) becomes too small to wear, the young heroine of this charming picture-book turns to her mother, and "Snip, Snip, Sew, Sew... New shirt, Hello!" This new garment soon becomes the young girl's favorite piece of clothing, always worn on her (new) favorite day, Wednesday. As time goes on, the erstwhile dress becomes smaller and smaller, transformed into a tank top, a skirt, a scarf, and a hair-bow. When even this is destroyed, a final use is made of the remnants of the beloved garment, enabling the girl to hold on to her memories...

I'm grateful to my friend Gundula for reviewing this sweet book, as I had initially passed it by, thinking it to be a fairly standard 'dressing up' story. There's nothing wrong with dressing-up stories, of course, when done right - children learn through imitation, after all, and many young people experiment by dressing up in their parents' clothing, or by wearing costumes of various kinds - but I somehow wasn't attracted to it. I'm glad that I read a review putting me right, however, as I Had a Favorite Dress turned out to be a charming tale of a girl and her mother, and their creative use of sewing to repurpose a beloved article of clothing, rather than just throwing it away. I appreciated both the frugality and artistry involved in the process being depicted in the story, and thought the accompanying artwork, done in watercolor, graphite, colored pencil, needle and thread, and digital collage, perfectly captured the sense of fun throughout. I also appreciated the fact that mother and daughter are African-American, but that this is not commented upon at all in text or artwork, as I think we need more lighthearted books featuring diverse characters. Recommended to anyone looking for fun and creative mother-daughter tales, or stories incorporating sewing-craft and clothing issues. ( )

33 months - Oh this is so going to be Olivia and I someday soon. She loves her tutus and I can just see her favorites slowly evolving into smaller and smaller fashion accessories as they get too small and/or become worse for wear. Very creative and cute idea. ( )

I can relate to this book because I have a dress that I love and I don't want to throw it out even thought I don't fit it anymore. The illustrator did a really good job with the illustration. Feels like the picture is in 3-D. I love how she loves her dress so much that she couldn't get rid of it so she made it into different piece of clothing she could. ( )