For Halloween, actually for a school project right before Halloween, I made a pretty black and white dress for Gracie. I thought at the time that I would just make one like it for Libby and that could be their Christmas dresses. But, then December came along and I remembered that I purchased some adorable gingerbread print and I wanted to be sure to use it. The black and white dress could easily be used as a special occasion dress on any occasion, but gingerbread cookies are Christmassy.
I used a pattern I have never used before: Simplicity 4647. As soon as I cut it out, I decided I didn't like it. But, now that the dresses are finished, I've changed my mind again. It's a cute dress, but the part of it that I liked until I actually cut it out was the bodice. I was having trouble loving the length of the bodice for an older child. On a toddler, a short bodice is adorable, but on a child who is over 4 ft tall, the short bodice might look too childish. Well, once it's cut, it's cut! No turning back, so I went ahead and scolded myself for not thinking about that earlier and sewed it up.
I made a few little mistakes. I didn't measure my 4 yr old correctly and her dress is too long. The bodice fits her well though. And I have the size 6 sleeves on the size 4 dress and vice versa. Whoops.
The sleeves are a flounce cap sleeve. In the picture on the pattern they are flouncier than in real life. On the dresses, the sleeves tend to stick straight out giving the girls wings rather than sleeves, but the girls didn't seem to even notice. This may be due to the type of fabric I chose, or the fact that I lined the sleeve flounce with trim fabric (since I figured you would often see the underside if it were bouncy and flouncy), I don't know, but the flounce sleeves turned out to be pointy wings. Guess what, these are the most adorable sewing mistakes I've ever made! Every time I see the sleeves pointing straight out, I can't help but laugh!
The girls are leaving a trail of glitter in their wake. Glitter infused fabric is fun to wear the first time, but it falls like pixie dust. The term "infused" is very misleading. The fabric is more or less "sprinkled" with glitter rather than infused. That's ok, there is glitter all over my sewing area, in my car, in the stroller, and everywhere in between.
When I took the girls to Disneyland in these dresses, we heard lots of comments about the dresses! Even from men! They were a hit and people complimented us all day long. It's amazing to walk through a crowd of strangers and hear wonderful words. The girls really feel special when they hear people exclaim that their dresses are so very wonderful! I feel pretty special too when I hear compliments all day long. Amazing experience! The best was Mrs. Claus, she was so animated with her expression and her compliments were genuine. Of course, she loved the gingerbread cookie print! She is a cookie loving woman after all.
The dresses must have been comfortable, there sure wasn't any complaining about seams being itchy, armpits too tight, zipper touching their backs, neckline too high, or any of the other usual commentary. It's funny how they'll complain to me about their things I make for them, but they complain even worse about store-bought clothing! They always want me to fix something or another. Neither one of them complained one bit about these dresses, so I guess the pattern was a good choice after all. The skirts were long enough to keep their legs warm and they had enough volume for a good twirl.
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