Belle - A Princess dress for Emily

Pattern: Butterick 4320

Fabric:  All stuff from my stash!  

-Yellow flowered leno shirting from fabric.com

-Yellow lace table cloth from Sharestuff (a thrift store) used for this dress too.

-Yellow criss-cross stitched cotton for bow left over from this dress years ago.

-miscellaneous yellow fabrics that I only had enough for one bow out of each.

-yellow lining or different kinds leftover from all sorts of things

-bodice lining from an old yellow tee shirt :-)

Emily says her favorite part is the shawl looking collar attachment.  I made this in 2 days on and off because Emily was actually very sick at the time and I was watching her and the house at the same time.  We were going to go to a friend's disney princess birthday party 5 days hence so I dug in my stash of fabric and scraps and whipped this up.  As it turned out she was still ill and could not go. :-(  But she got Belle dress out of it so she is pretty happy about that.  It is a little big on her now because of the weight she lost, but it'll fit right soon enough.

So it isn't exactly like Belle's from the movie but it is close enough. :-)

The bows are of different fabrics because of my scraps pile, but I kinda like it.

All of the bows are handsewn to the overskirt.  I did notice that they have you gather the back-most seam but don't have you make a bow for it.  I just un-gathered it because I didn't have any more scraps to make another bow out of. :-)

It is very full and she loves to spin. :-)

The Back

This dress was so simple to put together.  I would categorize it as easy.  The only hard part for me was putting in the invisible zipper and making sure everything was lined up right.  I don't know if the pattern even called for an invisible zipper though, I just like the way it looks...or doesn't look.

In this picture I still have to add a hook and eye.  The bodice is fitted with darts in the front and back which means you don't need to cut three pieces for the front and 4 for the back.  Which is nice.  Sewing for little people is so stress free. :-)  Except that they grow out of things...

With a couple petticoats under this it would get quite full. :-)

While Emily doesn't need another Belle costume for quite some time, if ever, I will definitely use the pattern again and modify it to make some more dresses in the future.

Curtsy!

Her new favorite necklace. :-)

Graduation Party Flowered Summer Dress

Patterns:  Butterick 6467 Bodice view B w/o sleeves size 10

Newlook 6589 Skirt size 10

Fabric: Vintage Green/yellow flowered bedsheet (goodwill)

Yellow table cloth (sharestuff)

White sheet for lining

I had an afternoon grad party with games and food and then we hired an English Country Line Dancing caller to come till sunset so we could dance.  My dress had to be cool because even though it was May 19th is was very warm.

I used the bodice from Butterick 6467 because I knew the fit was tried and true and I wanted to try a lace insert in the bodice.  As that was the case I did not raise the neckline any.  I didn't use the sleeves either.

 Also at my party I would be playing a good deal of volleyball and ultimate frisbee so I had to be able to run.  Que the Newlook 6589 skirt.  I know I can run in this because I've made it at least once.  Remember this green dress?

I remember falling in love with the lace on the bottom of that dress's lining, so I did in on this one as well.

Originally I was only planning to have lace at the neck, but I ended up having on the lining hem and as a sash as well. :-)  

While I was planning this I tried a bunch of different ways that I could sew the lace down while I had the right sides together but I found that it is humanly impossible.  Bummer.  So I just basted it and gingerly unpicked what I had to to insert the lace.  Then I topstitched around the neckline and armholes twice.

For absolute accuracy I hand-stitched the zipper in.

 The dress is fully lined, which means you don't have to wear anything under it and it is made of sheets so there is absolutely no chance of it shrinking.  :-)  The bummer with this is it is actually very heavy.

It's got to look just as neat on the inside as the outside. :-)

I usually wear it now with a cute belt at the empire waist or with a fun denim jacket. :-)  Gotta love it!