Finally, made it to 10 posts (you wouldn't think it'd be that hard, but I get to reading what you all have written and time gets away), did about 4 hours of geometry (plus a trip to the school to get the geometry book, and a trip to the gf's house to get her geometry book since the school was locked) to get ready for the test tomorrow - short rant here *this is why we homeschool - if we're not ready for the test tomorrow, we don't do the test tomorrow; if the homework didn't get done yesterday, I know that it didn't get done and what exactly needs to get done - but, noooo, he wanted to take geometry with his friends. I have learned my lesson. All academic classes will be done at home next year. Band, choir and woodshop- no problem; math or anything else with homework- no way* ok, rant over. Back to dresses and pics.
The Easter Dress!!
Inspiration: some gorgeous sheer fabric with pink embroidery that I found on the clearance rack on a day when Joann's was having 1/2 off clearance plus 20% (or maybe 25, can't remember) off for military discount. whoo hoo! I think it ended up costing around $3 a yard.
Now, I had to de-pink it since my sister (mother of the 4yo in question) doesn't like pink and since she's kind enough to let me dress her daughter on most special occasions, I try not to overdose her on pink. Soooo, I put the sheer over a nice purple. Voila - no longer a pink dress.
Style: Obviously the skirt has to be sheer over the solid, but what about the bodice? Smocking? (I really am going to do some of that one day) Some crinkly stuff my mother has? Or, embroidery? Hmmm, Easter, bunny, Easter Bunny! Embroidery it is.
Cute little bunny looking at a bird on an egg. No, if I cut it just right and scrunch up the hem on the sheer fabric, it looks like a butterfly. So, delete birdie, find butterfly, resize it (it's redwork, so it's not too bad to resize) and add butterfly to egg. Rinse, repeat (in other words, I wasn't happy with it the first time)
Sleeves? Well, we do have that butterfly theme going on. So flutter sleeves. But I don't have a dress pattern with flutter sleeves. (Here's where that "frankenpattern" thing comes in. I have a nice nightgown pattern with flutter sleeves, but the bodice is too short and it falls straight down from the shoulders in the back (might be really cute as a dress, but it's not what I'm looking for) So I just used the bodice front and the sleeves. I used the front again for the back; I just made it a little higher and added a bit so I could cut it in half to add a zipper. Oh and I added a couple of inches to the bodice.
Skirt? Two rectangles, sewn together, hemmed and then gathered.
Ahhhhhhhh! You know that pretty, shiny, sheer stuff that inspired me in the first place? It MOVES, on it's own, no matter what I do. When I'm cutting, when I'm sewing, and especially, while I'm not looking.
I will win though.
Out comes the glue stick. Ha Ha, you shiny stuff! I've got you now. (Worked great except I had glue along my gathering stitches - didn't pull so well, but I got it done).
Make and attach the sheer butterfly.
And suddenly, the dress was finished - on Friday! When I didn't need it til Sunday. (Sometime ask me when I finished my wedding dress)
And with no further ado...
and a bonus - This one's going to be for one of our days at that other theme park in Orlando this summer.