I don’t think I have made six birthday dresses for her, but it was her 6th birthday. I didn’t start sewing for her until she was a little over a year, and I think her 2nd birthday was the first time I made anything special for her to wear on her special day.
She was pretty cute.
Anya has recently decided that her favorite color is no longer pink, but gold (pink is her SECOND favorite color now). She wanted a princess dress for her birthday, so I bought some yellow satin with silver dots. I know it is not gold, but I couldn’t find gold in my local fabric shop.
The bodice was the most work. I hand stitched the silver cording on it in a random design. This took me several hours to do. I know it doesn’t look like it should take that long, but it did. There is a reason why I don’t do much hand stitching. I lined the bodice in a soft cotton muslin, and the sleeves are silver lamé.
As this is a princess dress, the skirt must be poofy. That is a requirement of all princess dresses, I believe. The top skirt is a circle skirt, then we have a layer of tulle and then a short cotton layer that is also a circle skirt. I attached a pleated layer of the satin to the cotton layer. I didn’t want the waistline to have too much going on, as to be bothersome. It’s still pretty full there, though. That ruffled tulle makes is a bit thick. I had extra fabric in the circle skirt, so I made the extra go in the back. It’s not quite a bustle, but it does give her a bit more in the back.
As you can see from the photo, it is indeed twirly. A proper photoshoot in it is forthcoming.
I honestly spent more time on this dress than I would normally do, as you can probably see. I wanted to try a few different things, knowing that very likely the dress itself will get trashed in a short amount of time. You should see what her last princess dress looks like right now. The tulle is barely hanging on, with several rips, and the silver lame is no longer silver as it has been washed so much. Still…if I’m going to spend the time making something for her, I want it to be worn. I won’t cry if the the tulle gets torn again or if she wears it so much all the little silver dots disappear. I get my “new dress” photoshoot for posterity’s sake and then all bets are off.
Yeah, I am with you. If you are going to put that much time into it, the dress should be worn. YOu did an awesome job on this one. So beautiful!!!!
Beautiful job on a very special birthday dress.