Angel Dress

 
My big girl isn't going to want to dress like this for too much longer, so it is lovely for me that she loves dresses like this.

She admired this fabric at the Isle of Wight so I got 3 meters. I knew it would make adorable children's dresses and now that I've worked with it, I've seen that it is very versatile. I could easily wear a summer top in this. Maybe 3/4 sleeves, or a cute Sorbetto. It needs lining or underlining but it is lovely and soft and hangs well. 

The school nativity play was just the deadline I needed to get on and actually make the dress I was planning. Luckily she has been cast as an angel. I've left the dress really long, almost floor length, and I will shorten it after the play to a more suitable dress length.

I used the trusty Cottage Mama Party Dress as my pattern block. The pattern came up pretty small in the chest and length. She has grown fast, so I have now re-drafted a bodice block for her current 6-7 yr size. The pattern length is the reason there is a cummerbund around the dress. I'm pretending it's a design feature. Actually, now that she is bigger, a plain bodice would look overly large in a plain-ish fabric such as this so I do like the feature that the band adds. I can see a lot of puckering in the pictures so it could have done with some lightweight interfacing. I top stitched over the band as well as around the armholes and neckline.

I'm getting better at installing invisible zips. I am so pleased I splashed out invested in an invisible zip foot for my machine. It is truly worth it. I almost got the two sides to line up evenly, I only had to take a little nibble out of the back neckline afterwards.

As I knew I would after my last post, I steeled myself for lots of skirt unpicking and reduced the skirt circumference by half. It is now 140cm around, which is one width of the fabric. I'm so pleased I did. The fabric is so delicate and light that less really is more with this dress. Plus, in white, with that fullness of skirt, there was a real danger in her being mistaken for a 6 year old bride, instead of an angel!

I used up the last of my plain white cotton for the lining and planned ahead at Mood with an array of invisible zips.
Fabric:<£5
Lining: stash
Zip: $1 
Total: about £5.50