Dalmatian Dress

As I did my Disney research, I read about Disney Bounding. My first thought was, “How fun!” (My second thought was, “That is terrible grammar!”) Disney Bounding is the practice of dressing for your favourite Disney character, without being in costume, which adult visitors are not permitted to do at Disney.

The girls favourite Disney movie is 101 Dalmatians and Big Sis wears her Dalmatian onesie almost daily. Since I wouldn’t let her wear the onesie to Disneyland, it seemed only fair to make her a polka dot dress so that she could Disney Bound too. 

Then I looked in Little Sis’ cupboard and found a polka dot dress the same! I was really looking forward to seeing my two dalmatians in the park. We were planning to meet Cruella de Ville and I was going to say, "Cruella, darling! What do you think of my two dalmatians? Aren't their coats divine?"

But, sadly, Cruella was not in town that day, and Little Sis' dress got left at home in London, when she didn't go and fetch it for packing. oops. We had a cute meet and greet with Mickey instead.

The fabric is polycotton, and I lined the bodice with white cotton. It’s a shame to see the reverse of the polka dots in the seam allowances, but I trimmed them down a bit, and it is not too distracting. The skirt is 3 widths of fabric, so the amount of gathering means I could get away with leaving it unlined. I love the black sash. The bodice is way too short for my big girl (Cottage Mama Party Dress, again, in size 8), so I had to add a sash. This is black cotton, but has some stretch. I gathered it at the side seams, and sewed the tucks down to take the weight of the skirt. I made a black bow, but left it off, thinking it too fragile to last for long.

I couldn’t get Disney patches for the dogs faces, so we had to make do with generic Dalmatian faces. The back is fastened with some polka dot buttons that I got in Canada a few years ago and I faced the hem with white cotton. She likes dressing as an animal, so this dress is fine for normal wear too.