Happy Easter! Savannah dress from Peek a Boo Patterns

I had visions of a sweet, white eyelet dress for the Bug for Easter this year.

One trip to JoAnn's and my hopes were crushed.  

First, my JoAnns had ONE eyelet. ONE. And it wasn't cute.

But they had rows and rows of sparkly chiffons and shiny satins... so you can imagine where the Bug's eyes went immediately.  She couldn't be swayed.

This is the blessing and the curse of taking your child to the fabric store to pick fabrics with you...

You can be reasonably certain they will like the finished product because they had a hand in it but your own creative vision?? You can pretty much forget about it.

Turns out, my own creative vision aside, this kiddo has pretty good taste... most of the time.

We wound up with a pretty coral satin for the underlayer and a shiny iridescent polka dot organza for the overlay.  When I saw the two fabrics I just saw SHINE, SHINE, SHINE but somehow they turned out so soft and ethereal.  I'm still not quite sure how that happened.

The dress pattern is the Savannah dress by Peek a Boo patterns.  I picked it because I loved the detail of the small pleats on the neckline, and if I'm honest, because the cover photo grabbed me 

(Yellow eyelet! Hello gorgeous!).  

Because I couldn't really iron the organza much, the pleats end up being much softer and less structured than the original dress but I kind of love that.

The sash is a bit of grosgrain ribbon that just happens to match the satin perfectly.

Because I can't have TOO much of the matchy matchy, we chose these blue sparkly buttons for the back.  Blue is the Bug's favorite color but I vetoed all blue fabric for Easter since she chose blue for her Christmas dress.  One can only use so many fancy dresses of the same color, right?  I really love the pop of color on the back.

I actually took the Bug's measurements before sewing and cutting this time. Imagine that! She measured around a size 5 bodice... I couldn't imagine sewing the bodice two full sizes smaller than she wears in ready to wear clothing so I split the difference and made a size 6 bodice with a size 7 skirt.  You can see the buttons pull a little when she pulls both arms forward, making me wish I'd not measured and just gone with my gut. I think a 7 all around would have fit better. Live and learn.

This is kind of how I feel about sewing these "special occasion" type fabrics.  They are slippery, stretchy and the organza snags easily.  It took some extra work to make French seams where I could and just very neat seams where I couldn't.  That hem?? Don't get me started.

But she loves the satin, shine and sparkle. And really, there probably aren't many more years she will want to be so over the top girly so I've determined to let her go with it whenever it's feasible.

For Easter Sunday it will likely be styled with this gold cardigan.  I'm hoping it's warm enough for the gold sandals as well.  (No more SNOW Mother Nature!! Got it??)  She is not really one for accessorizing or doing anything fancy with her hair so we will keep it simple.

~Lindsay

Happy Easter!

I made a set of Easter dresses for a friend's three girls a month or so ago and I've been waiting to share them with you until now. This past Sunday was Easter for those in the Orthodox tradition and these sweet girls had a lovely day for modeling.

Aren't they adorable?

Little sister and middle sister both have dresses made from an adaptation of the Party Dress pattern on The Cottage Home. I added the gathered overlay on the bodice, skirt lining and zippers in the back.

Very similar to the Bug's Easter dress last spring.

Big sister got a slightly different design.  It's the Josie Dress from Jennifer Paganelli's book, Girls' World.

It already had a gathered bodice so no alterations were needed for this pattern other than putting in a skirt lining.

This butterfly fabric is so cute and so springy.  It's very light weight and a bit slippery and stretchy to sew with but it's also surprisingly forgiving.  I bought it from JoAnn's on clearance last spring. I bought all they had around here and then found 4 more yards on eBay so that I'd have plenty for these three dresses.

It was totally worth it.

The Bug still loves to wear her butterfly dress so I hope these little ladies will enjoy theirs for a long time as well!

Happy Easter!

~Lindsay 

Happy Easter!

I did it!

I finished the Bug's Easter dress and got it photographed before Easter.

There were times I didn't think it would ever get done. But it did!

The dress is a remix of the free Party Dress pattern from The Cottage Home.

I love this pattern because it's so lovely as is but also lends itself to re-interpretation.

One of the big changes I made was my biggest headache. . . a zipper rather than the covered buttons in the pattern.  It was rough.

I found this fun chiffon print on clearance at JoAnn's.  I stalked it for a long time before I bit the bullet and bought a few yards.  I knew it would be difficult to sew.  

The shearness of it required me to make two dresses, the chiffon layer and the lining.

The skirt is super full.

It makes for a spectacular special occasion dress.

It also twirls quite nicely.

The original patter has a contrasting band of fabric around the hem too.

I knew from the beginning that I didn't want to do that.

What I didn't think of was that it would mean I had to hem, not one, but two very full skirts. 

And one of them a light weight, kind of stretchy, delicate one.

Ugh.

Another adaptation was the bodice.

I started out with the chiffon layer flat over the lining but felt like it was kind of boring.

So I cut a second bodice, a good deal larger than the pattern and I gathered it.

I absolutely love the texture the gathering adds.

And, excuse me as I freak out at how old my little girl looks here.

The sash gave me the most pause.  I couldn't figure out if I wanted more of the same fabric or if I wanted some accent fabric.  I tried a bunch of different colors from my stash before I unearthed this sunny yellow.

As soon as I held it against the dress I knew for sure.

It was a lot of work.

But it was well worth it.

She loves it. I love it.

I apologize for the photo heavy post.

My girl was in an unusually compliant mood for our photo shoot and we had a gorgeous day for it.

We had so many good photos to choose from.

Hopefully Easter Sunday is as nice!

~Lindsay