Yellow Dress

Not only did I complete an actual project but I made a dress.  Perhaps if you've followed my blog for a while and you've seen some of the sewing I've done you think this is no big deal, but I swear, for me this is a big deal.  I can look at a stroller to be re-covered and feel nothing but excitement but show me clothing and I get real scared.  My lack of experience shows up really quick too.

About a week ago a friend of mine pinned a picture of a dress and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Sadly the link wasn't a good one and it took you to a daily deals site where I couldn't find the original dress. I couldn't find any better photos so all I have is what you see above.  I thought about trying to re-create the dress for Catie and it took me the entire week to work up the nerve.  I finally went to the store, bought supplies and started with every expectation that somewhere along the line I'd fail miserably.  No pattern, no tutorial, just that photo along with very little clothing experience.  My only reassurance came from the many, many clothing tutorials I have read on the blogs I read and let me tell you, reading all those tutorials sure payed off.

Surprisingly things went very smoothly.  I used my seam ripper a shockingly small amount of times and the end result is pretty darn good if I do say so myself.  Two major changes I made from the original, I knew immediately that I wouldn't use ricrac.  Some of you may disagree with me here and that's cool but I think that nothing makes a piece of clothing look more homemade than ricrac, the only exception being if it's sewn into a hem so you just see the cute wavy part.  Anyway, I knew I would replace the ricrac with piping which would mean some extra fabric piecing but I love the look of piping so it was worth it.   I also used less buttons, but not on purpose.  I debated at the store between big and little ones, went with the big and they ended up being too big to fit 6 like the original.  Turned out I loved three even more though.  Okay, enough blabbing, here's the final photo.

The bodice is fully lined so no seams show, the skirt is lined with some white satin that I had on hand to keep the dress from getting stuck on tights and diapers and such and there's a zipper in the back.

Here's a close up of the bow, buttons and piping.

The zipper is not the most beautiful you've ever seen but it works.  If my skills were a bit better I wouldn't have needed the hook and eye at the top but sometimes you have to make compromises and I'm sure my next one will be even better.

I love the really wide hem and I think the piping gives it such a sleek look.  Sorry but there is no way I have the skills to post a tutorial for this dress, especially since I really made things up as I went along.  But hey, if I could figure it out so can you.

And a couple of photos of how cute Catie looks in it and some honesty about how I really feel about the finished project.

I think the dress is just a little long.  I would have liked the look of the dress if it was slightly shorter but it's far too much work to change and it's okay as is.  I also really wish I had moved the straps in a little further, they sort of slip off the shoulders, again not worth the effort so they're staying as is.  It's possible that bow is a bit large but I enjoy it anyway.

What really matters is that Catie loves it.  She put it on and looked in the mirror and started to spin.  I actually tried it on her a lot of times at different phases and she never fought me which is a huge indicator of how she felt about the dress.  I'm calling this a success.

  Linking To Monday - C.R.A.F.T., Making The World Cuter, Polly Want a Crafter, Simpsonized Crafts, Sugar Bee Crafts, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, The Girl Creative   Tuesday - All Things Related, Creative Itch, Domestically Speaking, It's Sew for You,  Ladybug Blessings, Sassy Sites, Today's Creative Blog, This & That, Topsy Turvy    Wednesday - Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket   Thursday - A Glimpse Inside,  House of Hepworth, It's Sew Stinkin Cute, Lemon Tree Creations,  Somewhat Simple, The Train to Crazy, What Allie's Making Now   Friday - Creation Corner, Finding Fabulous, Tatertots & Jello, The CrEaTiVe CraTe