The Liesl Dress

Yes!  I'm finally posting about my Liel Dress.  Some of you have been waiting since February I think, back when I bought the fabric for it. :-)  Well, in keeping with my old habits, I waited until the week before my party to make the dress.  I made a toile out of brown junk fabric just to make sure it fit.  You see, the pattern had different sizes and some comments about darts that I wanted to make sure fit.

Oops!  You don't even know what I used!

Pattern: Liesl's Dancing Dress by Katrina A. Casey @ Edelweiss Patterns

Fabric: Dusty Rose Chiffon Georgette from Hancock Fabrics on sale.  ¢27 a yard folks!, I bought the Antique Rose Taffeta Lining from fabric.com for $3.49 a yard.  1 spool of 1/4 inch pink silk ribbon and one pink zipper form Joann Fabrics.  I think we already had the elastic.

The whole pattern was pretty straight forward, but I do recommend making a toile first.  In the directions Katrina says to go by your measurements and not your sizes.  Do it.  Follow her advice, she knows. :-)

The skirt is basically a circle, but it is made with 6 (if I remember correctly) panels.  Because I wanted the insides to look really nice I used french seams wherever i could.  It uses a lot more thread and takes a longer amount of time, but I think it was worth it.  When I wash it I don't think I'll have anything to worry about.

I let the dress hang for 3 1/2 days after it was sewn up before I made the lettuce hem, but it has stretched a little since June. ;-)

I LOVE the sleeves.  They are the best part.  The hardest parts I think were making the casing for the elastic on the sleeves and stitching the gathers/ribbon.  Making everything look even is harder with chiffon. :-/

I'm still a little unsure about the bodice to skirt seam...I tends to sag in the middle creating the illusion of a rounder middle than I have, but oh well. :-)

As you can see in the picture above, one thread in my right sleeve snagged on something.  It will not even out now.

Sorry about the picture heavy post. :-)  Here are some from the day of the party.

Such precious girls. :-)

Sara, Emily, Moi, Shannen, Kara

 Sara and I taught ourselves the Laendler by watching the scene from the sound of music over and over again.  I took like 3 hours, but we got it in the end.  This was back in December '10.  The night before the party we taught it to everybody staying at our house.  Wow.  Yeah, that was a feat. :-)

During clean up Emily and I ran from bench to bench like Liesl and Ralph do in the movie. :-) 

Waltzing with my bro.

 Bunches of Awesomeness. :-D

Hudson, Jamie

Josiah, Nathanael, Emily, Joanna, Kara, Sam

Shannen, Emily, Sara

Does this picture remind YOU of yogurt and daises?  :-)  My older brother says it does for him.

Au Revoir!