Lenten Sewing - Easter Dress

 I have been wanting to make this dress for so long. When it came time to decide on Hannah's Easter dress for this year I knew this dress and with this fabric was exactly what I wanted, The decision process is never that easy for me. The dress pattern is the First Day Dress by Dana Willard of Made and the fabric is a quilters cotton Colorbok for JoAnn Fabrics. My husband says the flowers remind him of raspberries. They kinda do, don't they? This dress is perfect for fabrics with big patterns since so little is lost with gathers and lots of pattern pieces.

The pattern comes with two dress styles an a-line and a swing dress (the version I made). Both have a shirt variation and a front placket option for the swing dress or top. The little cap sleeve is optional as well. The sizes are 2 - 10.  All that makes it a steal in my opinion. 

My Hannah is between a 4t and 5t and based on the measurements for the dress I made the size 4. Its fits a little more snug than Dana shows and describes which seems right to me since Hannah is between a 4T & 5T.

I love the lines of this dress but then I'm a sucker for a circle skirt. I was a bit surprised how high the neckline is when Hannah first tried it on. I realized why I didn't expect it, most of the pictures of this dress on the PDF pattern show the dress and tops from the back. It's not that I don't like it I just didn't expect it. Stupid of me of course since the dress pattern uses the same pattern piece for the front as the back. 

The flower I added was really simple. I took a strip of fabric 4"x20" folded it in half wrong sides facing (do not iron) and ran one gathering stitch 1/2" from the raw edge. Tied off the tread on one end of the strip and pulled the bobbin thread on the other end to gather the fabric. I gathered until I could gathered no more. It will automatically want to coil for you. Just follow its lead and tuck and fluff until your happy. I just whip stitched the flower together on the wrong side to hold it in place. Then I mounted it to a brooch pin (like found here) so I could remove it from the dress when washing.

All in all I really like this dress and think this pattern is going to get a ton of use. I can't wait to make the swing top for this summer and I have some plans for that a-line dress too. Hannah loves the dress too and that's what really matters the most. 

I hope you all have a very happy and blessed Easter!

Darla