Silje’s Party Dress

After seeing so many awesome versions of the “Feliz Party Dress” online, I’ve been wanting to make one for Silje for some time.  In fact, I had gotten the pattern (which is now only available in the book Sewing Clothes Kids Love which I highly recommend) and I’ve also had the pieces cut out and scattered around my sewing room since before Solveig was born.  I was intending on finishing it before she was born and letting Silje wear the dress as a jumper with a long sleeved shirt underneath this last winter, and then a summer dress when it got warm.  So the whole jumper phase was missed, but the pattern is made in such a way to grow with her that it might make it through next summer.

I intended to put another pink and white flowered ruffle all around the bottom of the dress but I had miscalculated the fabric needed and didn’t have enough.  The book is laid out to teach you how to modify the patterns, and so it gives lots of estimations.  I wasn’t thinking of doing the bottom ruffle until later, and had estimated what I needed a bit too closely.  So the ruffles in the back hang down lower than they should because I was anticipating them covering another seam that isn’t there.  I think next time I go fabric shopping in the city, I’ll see if they have any of that fabric left and add the ruffle.  It will make the dress longer, which I hope will extend the life of the dress perhaps even another year.

It’s a 2 layer dress with kind of an attached pinafore.  Normally the top layer of the dress has multiple fabrics, but I opted for a solid pink to calm down Silje’s other fabric choices.  Yes, I said Silje’s choices.  I let her desgin this dress.  (In all honesty, I did sway her in the fabric shop away from the cupcake glitter fabric and towards the pink and brown fabric because I didn’t want all the glitter in my sewing room.)  At first we were thinking of a pink and brown theme, hence the underdress fabric.  However, when she found my purple ribbon and pink daisy lace, she wanted more purple in it.  So then I suggested we incorporate some purple fabric (which I happened to have in my stash).  I’m not sure if it’s really cool, or really a sign of a serious problem if I tell Silje as we’re laying out design fabrics “What this needs is some purple” and then I lay out a selection for her to choose from my stash without hopping to the store.

The placement of the applique, to where the lace and ribbons went, and the kind of sash that was used was all from Silje’s brain.  If she was stuck, I made a suggestion, or I would explain why an idea wouldn’t work on a technical level.  It was really a team project.  She was just so excited to be invited into my “no kids allowed” sewing room and work the design board with me, where I let her make some decisions that I would have never come up with.  It is her dress.

She designed the applique, and I sewed it on.  I might have picked something different, but she was certain of what she wanted.  So yards of fabric in the skirt, intricate applique, yards of ribbon, lace and ruffles…Knut said it’s the most “girly” dress he has ever laid eyes on.

Which might explain why Silje has been dizzy since she put it on this morning.