Easter Dress Makeover, plus DOLL DRESS!!

Wow so it's been a little while since I've blogged! Well I'm back and I wanted to share my latest make and talk about some future plans.

First, I'm gonna go backwards a bit in time. Last year, after the rush of Christmas was done and I had a little space to breathe, I started dreaming of making a bunch of girls' dresses for Easter. I made a plan and hoped that over the 6 weeks of Lent I'd be able to crank out 6 dresses.

I did the first, S8306, with an adorable cropped jacket.

I did the second, B6046, with a sweet bow.

I did the third (bodice NL6205) with some gorgeous floral fabric and a lovely large self drafted pleated circle skirt.

I started the fourth, S1508,  and got most of the way....and then ran out of time.

So that fourth Easter dress has been sitting for a year waiting to be finished, but I kept looking at it and thinking it was just too much skirt. So, I decided to pull it out and hack off some length!



I also felt like it needed something to make it pop and decided to create a bolero to go with it, so I used S8103 and left off the collar.  I just love a cropped jacket!!





But it gets even better. With the length I chopped off of the skirt, I decided to indulge my latest obsession...MATCHING DOLL DRESSES!!! And a matching bolero of course, both courtesy of B6265.

I can't tell you how excited this makes my inner child. Why is everything tiny so irresistible? I don't know but I can tell you I want to make every human sized dress I ever make in doll size too now. I won't don't worry...I mean I probably won't.

Anyway, so I got the Fourth Easter Dress FINALLY finished with a little bit of a refashion, and a matching doll dress for 18" dolls (American Girl size or any of the equivalent store brands.) They're both available in my Etsy shop now! Girls Dress and Doll Dress



I hope to be making a lot more doll clothes in the future, whether with matching girl clothes or not, as it's the perfect scrap-buster for me and they are so quick and satisfying to make. Hopefully this is just the beginning of many more to come!

My Inner Child's Fantasy Princess Dress! - McCalls 5731

Last year around Halloween, I came upon McCalls 5731, a great basic princess dress pattern.

 

I fell in love especially with the drawing they made for view B, THOSE SLEEVES!!

When I was little, and as many little girls do, wanted to play princess, I always wanted a "real" princess dress. I didn't want plastic sparkles and throw-away costumes, I wanted a beautifully made gown that was me-sized.

So this year, I decided I wanted to make a version. I didn't have anyone in mind to make it for specifically, but it was just one of those things where I had to get this out of my head and create it in real life, and hopefully whoever it is meant for will find it. :-)

I've been trying to use up my fabric stash, and so I had fun playing around with dying some mint green polyester fabric I had quite a bit of. I used Rit's Dye More that is made specially for dyeing synthetics. I mixed sapphire blue and charcoal, and got this lovely rich blue (which looks almost teal in this lighting, but it's not really).

I loved it! I decided to pair it with some buttery cream fabrics for the front center panel, and use an overlay of the swirly sheer organza I had leftover from the bluebonnet dresses for the center bodice.

I lined the sleeves with a very light blue, to pick up the light blue swirlies in the bodice. I trimmed it with a silver lace for just a tiny bit of sparkle. I loved the combination of all the fabrics, and just kept going until I finished her up this weekend.

In process pic..

I'm proud to say that except for the silver trim, all the fabric I used was from my stash, hooray!

And here she is!

I'm SO in love, it's just what I imagined! I can't describe just how satisfying it is to create what you were hoping to create, it's the best feeling. The only change I made to the pattern was to add a bow to tie in the back, so that it could be cinched in just in case it was a little big.

I also made a hoop skirt to go with it...

...because, I mean seriously y'all...if you're going to go full out princess, you HAVE to have some structure underneath for some serious poofage, amiright? Look at the difference some structure makes!!

I have a little confession...when I see a lovely little girl with a sweet princessy dress that is droopy, it makes me a little bit sad! I always felt that way when I was small too, lol, no half-baked princess gear in my house, I'm an all or nothing kind of gal.

So that's it! Since this wasn't made for anyone in particular, it's now listed in my Etsy shop, (as is the hoop skirt!) awaiting its home. This was such a pleasure to make!

And I'm just as excited about my next project, a gown inspired by Queen Victoria! Stay tuned. :-)

Wedding Dress to Baptismal Gown

I'm so excited to finally be able to share one of my latest projects!! I was asked to transform a wedding dress into a baptismal gown, which is an idea I just love.

This is really my first time hacking up a dress to make something else. Let me tell you, when you spend so much time creating things, it is NOT EASY to disassemble a beautiful garment! It hurt a bit to make that first cut, lol, but I knew it was for a good cause. ;-)

The dress was a gorgeous vintage style tea length wedding dress. First step was to take out the crinoline.

Then I separated the bodice from the skirt.

Then I unpicked the pleats in the skirt.

And got to cutting up pieces for the bodice!

I used McCalls 6221 for the bodice.

We wanted to incorporate some of the beading and buttons from the original dress. Ideally, we were going for a more unisex look so it could be used for any future children as well.

I just added a bit of the beading around the sleeves. Took a little bit of hand stitching!

On the bodice I wanted some kind of subtle detail. I decided on some monotone stripes. I tried several different ribbons and settled on, of all things, some of my Snug Hug rayon binding. I just liked the texture, and it matched the color so well.

Originally, I had planned to add a ruffle, as seen in my drawing.

But once I assembled it, I found it to be a bit too heavy (the fabric was substantial!) I loved the look, but I just kept thinking the ruffle needed to go.

 I also thought it started to lean a bit more feminine with the ruffle, so I asked the new Mama and we agreed to stick with the simpler style without the ruffle.

Finally, I had to decide on button placement. I knew I wanted the two little buttons on top, and played a bit with placement down the skirt. It came down to a choice between evenly spaced or spaced in twos. I thought the pairs of buttons just added something unique, and I liked how they mimicked the two on top, so I went with that!

The back has a button and loop closure.

I also had enough fabric left to make a simple little bonnet, also included in the pattern.

I was really pleased with how the final product came out.

It's always a little scary when you're not quite 100% sure about what you're going to do when you start cutting up a dress to become your fabric supply! On the other hand, sometimes I enjoy having limitations to guide my decisions, makes them easier. ;-)