Bluebonnet Dresses - Finished!

Happy Easter to everyone!! What a perfect time for pretty little girls in frou-frou dresses wading through Texas bluebonnets! We had a gorgeous weekend here in Austin, sunny with a lovely cool breeze.

It was another week of whirlwind sewing for me, of course, and I am just ecstatic at how these dresses came out, they were so much fun.

As a bonus, I actually got to meet Sally of SallyKate Photography for the first time, though we've known each other online for many years! She and a friend came with their darling model daughters to take the traditional (around here) photos among Spring wildflowers. In a lovely coincidence, another mutual online acquaintance of ours happened to be crashing at my place when she stopped by. I always love meeting longtime online friends!

So, I missed a few days again of the My Daily Sew challenge, I just got so busy trying to finish up that I didn't get a chance to come post. But I hope to make it up for it with this post!

On my last post I had finished the bodices...

Next I had to start figuring out the skirts. I needed a kind of cascading ruffle effect, with a lot of volume and movement. I decided to just gather a good amount of the nylon chiffon over the full circle skirt lining (which all sits on top of the hoopskirt, of course), and then start layering with circular shapes on top of that. Gathering all that fabric took a while!

I figured out the ruffles by adding the full length of the skirt to the length I wanted the top tier to be, and using that as a diameter. Then I cut big circles using that number, and trimmed the edge in a sheer ribbon to give it some body and define the edges, and it worked perfectly!

Then it was just a matter of pinning everything on, attaching it all, and sewing it to the bodice.

On the yellow version, I added a bit of cream dotted lace on the side just for some different texture and interest. The blue version had some lace trim around the edges of the fabric on the sides.

Then I added a zipper on the back, and a ribbon tie at the very top. I kept it long to hang down and blow in the breeze. :-)

Finally, I embellished the front with flowers from the shoulder to the waist, and falling down the skirt a bit.

And they were done just in time, lol! The girls came and tried them on, and they fit great and looked fabulous. Then they were off to take pics, and I got to wait for my favorite part, seeing some amazing photos!! I'll just leave these here. ;-)

Julie Peveto Photography