Crafting Adventures: Fancy Pink Dress

 

Every year, the kids' school puts on a Father-Daughter Dance.  This event typically takes place in January or February, near Valentine's Day, so last year, I assumed it would fall at the same time.  I got it in my head that I wanted to sew up a sweet little Valentine's dress for our daughter to wear to the dance, but then I found out that it wouldn't be happening until later in the spring.  Still, I couldn't be deterred, and decided to go ahead and make the dress I had in my head.

I saw this gorgeous dress on Pinterest, via Sew Much Ado:

Her blog post includes a pattern and tutorial for a size 4 dress, but that wasn't the right size for my girl, so I turned to the Oliver + S Building Block Dress Book to draft my own pattern.

To mimic the Sew Much Ado dress, I altered the Building Block Dress pattern following the directions in the book to have an empire waist, keyhole button back, and bell sleeves with ruffles.  I also loved the look of the lace overlay in the inspiration dress, so in addition to a lovely solid pink fabric, I used a tulle overlay fabric for the skirt that featured adorable little velvet bows.  (Both fabrics and the cute pink heart button on the back are from JoAnn.)

For the overlay, I did not double the width the way that I did for the skirt on the solid fabric, so it hangs rather straight instead of being full and gathered at the top.  Also, to keep things looking neat, I used French seams on the side seams of the overlay.  However, I did not hem the overlay- I cut it to the finished (hemmed) length of the solid skirt, knowing this fabric wouldn't fray.  It is perhaps not as neat- my cut lines aren't super perfect- but I felt that hemming it or trimming it with something would weigh it down too much.

I did make a few mistakes with this sew.  For one thing, I way overestimated how big of an elastic loop I would need for the keyhole button back (you can see how it gapes in the above picture).  During a fitting of the bodice, I just became so paranoid that the neck line would be too tight for her, so I cut a super huge loop.  Oops!

Also, the ruffles on the sleeves should probably have been longer.  They are a sort of squat, awkward length at her elbows, but she's a little picky about sleeve length and requested that the sleeves not fall past her elbows, so this is what we ended up with.  Maybe I should have just used wide bell-shaped sleeves with no ruffles at all?

Overall, I'm really happy with this dress.  I know it's taken me a year to post about it, but it's been a busy year!  I have improved a lot in my sewing over the past year, and I'm excited to share more of what I'm making with you here.  My current project is also being made with the Building Block Dress book so stay tuned for that!

Do you have a favorite pink dress?

Much love,

The Geeks