Project Run and Play Week 1: The "Princess Party Dress"

  

Eve has been jealous lately of the new clothes I have been sewing for her big sister. Eve has a lot of clothes and Kylie doesn't, so naturally I have been sewing more for Kylie Bear. It really hit Eve hard when she saw some bright pink dot confetti fabric and she said: "Ohhhhh.... who is THAT for?" I felt so bad that I had to tell her I was already using it to make her big sister an outfit. Eve said she really hoped the next thing I would make for her would be "sparkly pink, pretty please?" 

And she gave me those big puppy dog eyes.

That's it, next outfit was going to Eve and we were going to the fabric store together to pick out the fabric.

It just so happened that Project Run and Play was starting back up and I needed to make something for the first week if I wanted to sew along. The week's theme was to remix this very awesome free pattern/tutorial: The Party Dress by The Cottage Home. I had envisioned making a crisp color blocked linen dress, very modern, clean lines, no nonsense. But then I decided this dress would be tailored to my Everz:

-The princess of the family. 

-Our 3 year old who insists that she is "Princess Cinderella Marsh." 

-Who only wants to wear big pouffy dresses to church.

-Who tells us that she can't do any cleaning because she is Princess Cinderalla (Ummm... I don't think she gets where Cinderella came from.)

Sigh. We don't have the same style. But I wanted this dress to be special for her. I at least talked her out of pink at Jo-Anns. Thank goodness Cinderella has a blue dress, because I really didn't want to do a bright pink, sparkly and pouffy dress.

I also added a little bit of edge by adding a leather belt instead of a sash. And then took the whole edge away by adding a giant flower to the belt. The belt was very helpful as well because it helped keep the bodice more fitted. Everz is almost four (no she's not... seriously? What happened to my baby?) and she is so tiny, she still wears mostly 2T stuff. So I don't know why I cut out the bodice from the pattern in a 3T. It's pretty big on her but the belt helps. After sewing up the bodice and lining, I tried it on my oldest and it fit her perfectly. Oops. But Eve was NOT about to let this dress be for Kylie, she made that clear. If I use this pattern again (which I probably will, it's very easy to follow!) I will just use a smaller size. 

When remixing the pattern, I decided the best part of the dress was the bodice.  It's fully lined and has easy button closures in the back. As it was the best part of the dress, I did not modify it at all. Instead I attached a completely different skirt to the bodice: a simple white broadcloth skirt for the lining with 4 layers of light blue tulle topped with 4 layers of a light smokey grey tulle and finished off in a modified bubble hem. And of course as you can see, it's also maxi length, but not long enough to touch the ground of course! This dress is going to get lots of wear if Eve has anything to say about it, so it needs to stay off the ground. The belt is a very simple pleather belt that is removable to make the dress easier to wash. The button in the middle of the flower matches the fabric covered buttons in the back of the dress.

I also had made a leather bow to go along with the outfit but we couldn't find it when it was time to take pictures! Oh well, the show must go on!

Her are some of my favorite pictures from our mini photoshoot, Hobby Lobby has their Christmas decor at 90% off so I picked up a bunch of fake snow for under a dollar!

 

We took some pictures outside so that the skirt would show up a little better. It was blending in with the white background in the inside pictures. It was a bit chilly but we took them fast:

Kylie took advantage of me being busy with Eve and was busy in the mud the melted snow left behind. This girl LOVES mud.

 

Of course we found the leather bow right away when we went back inside. Just pretend Eve was wearing this bow in all the pictures.