Lately Lila has had a couple of play dates with little girls who have lots of dress-ups. I also noticed how much Lila liked dressing up for Halloween and continues to ask to put on the cat suit. So I decided it was high time the girl had a princess dress!!
I decided to sharpen my sewing skills with this project because my sweet sister Clarissa gave me a ton of scrap fabric from a formal dress she made years ago. It seemed like the most appropriate use for the fabric, since I can't think when I will be needing a formal dress myself!
I used Make It & Love It's Cinderella dress tutorial as my guide. Of course there were several changes on my part. First of all, I was using materials I already had, so even though I think the tutorial's idea of a stretchy fabric on top is really practical for a growing girl, I adapted since I had satin to work with. And since I was working on this while Lila was napping, the bodice ended up being sorta snug. My answer to fix this problem was to use elastic loop and button closures in the back. I also had to add an extra seam in the back so the waist would open up completely in the back to accommodate a growing toddler. This necessary adjustment might have been avoided had I done a proper fitting...but, nap time is the best time to work on projects! For my next project where I'm making my own pattern/not using a pattern, I will for sure do a fitting to make sure it fits :o)
While I wouldn't want anyone to look too closely at the dress, it was a good project to sharpen my lacking skills. I used french seams for the side seams to keep it from looking ugly on the inside. For all the seams with gathers I zig zagged twice to cut down on fraying too. Hopefully the dress can last for the grandkids someday!
I decided to sharpen my sewing skills with this project because my sweet sister Clarissa gave me a ton of scrap fabric from a formal dress she made years ago. It seemed like the most appropriate use for the fabric, since I can't think when I will be needing a formal dress myself!
I used Make It & Love It's Cinderella dress tutorial as my guide. Of course there were several changes on my part. First of all, I was using materials I already had, so even though I think the tutorial's idea of a stretchy fabric on top is really practical for a growing girl, I adapted since I had satin to work with. And since I was working on this while Lila was napping, the bodice ended up being sorta snug. My answer to fix this problem was to use elastic loop and button closures in the back. I also had to add an extra seam in the back so the waist would open up completely in the back to accommodate a growing toddler. This necessary adjustment might have been avoided had I done a proper fitting...but, nap time is the best time to work on projects! For my next project where I'm making my own pattern/not using a pattern, I will for sure do a fitting to make sure it fits :o)
While I wouldn't want anyone to look too closely at the dress, it was a good project to sharpen my lacking skills. I used french seams for the side seams to keep it from looking ugly on the inside. For all the seams with gathers I zig zagged twice to cut down on fraying too. Hopefully the dress can last for the grandkids someday!
Lila has decided to be completely uncooperative for pictures. These were the best I could get.
She really loves the dress, which is gratifying!
And what can I say, I happen to love dresses myself, so it was a fun project!
The week before the Cinderella dress I got out my machine and made Lila a tunic top. I had used the Simplicity pattern before (seen here in the last pic from this post last year), and remembered thinking the neckline was too wide. Remembering the wide neckline I thought I would just make it in the size 2 again like I did the previous year, thinking that since Lila is bigger this year it would fit just right. Wrong! I don't know what I was thinking; I really should've just adjusted the pattern while I was cutting it out. Lesson learned...although I may have decided that I just don't care for this pattern at all and will never use it again! So anyway, it fit really poorly after I made it, so I ended up putting an inverted pleat in the front of the neck to make it smaller. It was the only thing I could think to do to fix the problem. It looks ok, but I don't love it. And Lila told me this morning that, "I don't like this dress." So we'll see if she will ever wear it.
Once again, all of the fabric came from my stash, so it was a project that I could just make on a whim. I want to make her a few more tunics (not from the same pattern!) for the winter, since I have more fabrics in my stash that will suffice. Hopefully the next project will turn out better!
She's not cooperating for pictures, again :o)
You might be able to see the pleat in this pic...I suppose it's not awful.
Well, I should really put my sewing machine away for a while and get to finishing my English papers. When I do finish those English papers I have plans to make more dress-ups. Ideas include: another princess dress (for when friends come over), a fairy outfit, pirate outfit, animal tails and ears, cowgirl outfit, and a doctor or nurse outfit. If anyone out there knows of any tutorials for those, let me know!
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