Getting Ruffled

For my oldest daughter's Easter dress, I decided to adapt a pattern from Martha Pullen's "Sew Beautiful" magazine.  The Laura A-Line Dress (Jan/Feb 2004) was originally a sleeveless white dress with an optional smocked waistband.  You can see the original here.   I decided to go with a bright floral print instead with a polka-dot batik (thank-you remnant bin!) at the waist for contrast.  I used to skirt pattern as the underlining for a series of cascading flounces and added a simple puffed sleeve.

Using a rotary cutter, I cut a series of 8 1/2 inch strips of fabric to form the flounces.  The lower edge of the tiers were bound with red bias tape.  Starting from the bottom, I attached three rows of ruffled flounces in cascading tiers.

This is the skirt after all the rows were attached.  With the exception of adding the sleeves, no changes were made to the bodice.

The sash/band features horizontal pleats and is attached to the dress.  The dress is finished with buttons in the back.

Here is the final product ready for Easter.

Chemise Dress

About four or five years ago, I got the idea of making my girls all dresses for pioneer day.  It never happened, but I still had the pattern (McCall's M4547) sitting in my closet unused.   While looking through my patterns for a simple summery dress for a bold floral print, I can across it again.  

Although the dress itself was not what I had in mind; the pattern included some pioneer-style underwear.   The chemise up until modern times was a loose shirt-like undergarment (lengths could vary) worn as a bottom layer under dresses, bodices, corsets, etc.  Now it can refer to a simple dress or shirt with straight lines.  The chemise was exactly what I had in mind and in a bold floral print would look nothing like underwear.

This is how it came out.  I was true to the original pattern with nothing altered.  I added some trim in the form of some pink rick-rack above the hemline and used a pink ribbon to gather the neckline.  The pattern is simple - I was able to whip it together in just a few hours.  My daughter loves her new dress; though I wonder what she would think if she knew she was parading around in "underwear."