My little sugarplum fairy is now playing the viola in the orchestra class at school. I am so happy both my kids picked up string instruments, as it is a personal favorite of mine. The Boy is playing the violin.
They had a concert tonight, so nice formal clothes were needed. Last year it was a little depressing seeing how the girls were dressed. The Boy was in dress slacks, a button-up shirt and suit jacket. The girls were in leggings and knit tops. Only a few were actually dressed up. This year was much better.
As usual, I had to make something dressy for the girl, as she will not be wearing leggings to the concert.
Yep, growing up a bit too fast!
I had had this velvet languishing in my fabric closet for a few years. As it had no discernible purpose prior to this…I enthusiastically, and naively, decided to make my daughter a dress with it. Add in some satin, and my insanity level increased!
I began by measuring her to get the right bodice size. Once I drafted the basic bodice, which I added some shaping, I made it have princess seams. It also had darts in the back. I made a muslin to make sure of the fit, and then onward to the velvet and satin.
In the princess seams, I added some bias cut satin to spice up the top. It was a huge PITA.
The back is zipped up, so I added 1″ to the center back to account for the zipper. I built in about an inch of ease into the pattern.
The skirt I drafted based on the waist measurement on the bodice, and made it as wide as I could. I only had about 2 yards of fabric, and I couldn’t do a circle skirt like I wanted. She requested the high-low mullet hem.
I lined the entire dress with satin, as I don’t think the velvet was very soft on the inside. Lining the entire dress and enclosing all the seams was another measure of my insanity. This entire process was not the most pleasant, but it looks great on her and fits her well.
The poor Boy did not get anything other than hemmed pants for the concert. I bought him a size up in dress slacks, since I knew with the way he was growing he would barely getting any use of them. At least he should be able to wear them for the next concert.
Got to save some money some where!
Viola and violin players in your family ~ that’s fantastic! (I played the violin and still have my last violin). Those velvet and satin fabrics look so luxurious! All of the pain making it was worth it.
Thanks, Rachel! I played the viola for a little bit, and wish I would have stuck with it. My teacher was a bit of an ass, unfortunately, so I quit. I am glad the kids have taken up the instruments. 🙂