Dress up

First things first, I finally made it through! The dissertation defense is done and over and yay, relief! I have corrections and editing to do, enough to keep me busy until my next deadline: March 22. So I won't be blogging too much until after that point, but wanted to share the good news! It should be mostly downhill from this point. Countdown to graduation...61 days :)

So I'm finally letting myself relax a little more and do some sewing. Saturdays are great for this usually. I found this sparkly sequin printed hideous fairy princess sparklethon blue fabric in the bargain section for 3.97. It reminded me of all those insanely expensive disney dress-up dresses for and I decided I had to try it out. I'm using a borrowed serger, how bad could it be?

I also had some light blue lining fabric and iridescent crinkled tulle left over from a fairy renaissance fair costume from like 2008?? So combine all that with mostly serging and I am super pleased with this fairy princess cinderella gown!



She twirls and spins, but mostly she's trying to blow bubbles.



This dress is perfect for my festive mood!



And she's been wearing it for over an hour and keeps saying "I'm a princess! I'm a fairy" I have to keep correcting her: "How about a doctor? Doctor Cinderella?"


Hoping I can throw together a few more projects for you soon.

If you're interested in how I made it: I traced out a simple bodice from another dress she had, leaving the back open down the center for a velcro square closure. I made it fairly big so she can wear clothes under it. I serged the raw ends of the neck and armholes. I made a lining skirt that goes to her knees by serging a tube and finishing the raw hemline (sorry you can't see that skirt, but its easier for playing if the tube underskirt is short). I cut about 2/3 of a yard of sparkle fabric to make the skirt overlay. I pinned the overlay to the center top back of the lining skirt. Next I gathered the open ends of the overlay and pinned them to the center front of the lining skirt, serged that down. So the overlay is open at the center, allowing more movement. Then I used a ruffle foot and processed about 2 yards worth of a 5" wide strip of tulle. I pinned that to the skirt overlay/lining combo, leaving the front open. Connected the bodice to the skirt, yay serger! Then I used the remaining 1/3 or so yard of sparkly blue and pinned it to the center front. I attached the right side of the sparkle fabric to the inside of the bodice so when its flipped there is no raw neckline showing  and the sparkle is the right side showing. Then I gathered it at the front, shoulders, and back left and right and tacked it down with zigzag stitches, leaving some of the extra fabric at the back. Attach velcro closure. Trim down hem to size. I decided not to finish the hem since it doesn't seem to be unraveling. I made a mistake and sewed the bodice on wrong side out in my zeal to finish. Not a big deal with a dress up gown, but it does make the inside look super finished since the shoulder seams and side seams on the outside are either covered or prettily serged.