This dress has got to be the most fun, hilarious, Ciderella-like, dress I’ve ever made! The drafting, sewing, and even the gown itself was pretty “standard” but the moment I tried it on, Madeline was totally awestruck by it and immediately demanded that I take off the dress and give it to her! Since I wasn’t fast enough to undress, she started yanking the dress off of me. Talk about toddler tantrum! It just reminded of that scene from Cinderella when the stepsisters tore her dress apart before they left for the ball. Yikes! I was able to take a video of the Drama Queen but if it wasn’t for my chaotic and embarrassing room, I would totally share it with you for a good laugh.
I don’t have any special events coming up – I really just made this dress for therapeutic purposes only. To put it on and twirl around in front of the mirror a bit to forget, even for a few minutes, about the arthritis-induced sinusitis and low grade fever. My PCM had given me Flonase to try before I’m sent to ENT so my face has been feeling like I got a big, heavy brick placed on it. I even told my friend the other day that it hurts to make a facial expression so I have this constant RBF, or resting bitch face, going on. I try to see the humor in everything. My rheumatologist told me to stay off Methotrexate until the sinusitis is taken care of and asked if I was on Xeljanz. Ok, so I’m pretty iffy about Xeljanz. If you are taking or have taken Xeljanz, please share your thoughts and experience! I’ve heard so many good and bad things about it.
So for this therapeutic project, I chose to use this red lace tulle which has been sitting in my closet for the past two years. My mother had brought with her a stack of colorful lace fabrics from Myanmar and since this was the longest fabric of the bunch I decided to make a gown based off of my little black Christmas party dress which was based off my denim dress I made last summer. That’s the thing I love about basic patterns – you can modify them anyway you want as long as it’s got the perfect fit. I also jumped on the fashion bandwagon and made the underskirt super shorter which is a trend I’ve been seeing. Just type in “lace gowns” on Google and you’ll pretty much see a lot of that style. I’ve included lots of photos of my sewing process and I hope you’ll find the steps clear and helpful!
Revolutionary Soldier. Description: White cravat; fleece jacket with stand up collar & gold details; white fleece pants with attached faux black boots.
I’m really glad to say that I finished Logan’s costume in time! Whew. I said before that hopefully I’ll be better prepared next year and then I cut it so close every time. I swear I don’t procrastinate! But I think I’ll also add “no presumptions” to next year’s resolution. You see, last fall was inexplicably cold and windy – the kind of cold that makes you uncontrollably hop on one leg and garble through chattering teeth. You might think, hey it’s only Oklahoma, but I confess we are warm weather people and unless there was a really awesome, can’t miss event going on outside, we would rather hibernate in the living room by the fireplace. So as part of my last year’s resolution, I decided to make the costumes this Halloween in fleece. Madeline’s Lolita dress was made in cotton but I had made matching white fleece pants and sweater (which had double layers on the torso) to wear under her dress. Luckily for her though, I was able to replace the sweaters with thinner stockings. I swear I kept checking the weather – every time it would say something different so I decided it’s better safe than sorry and went ahead with the fleece. Logan’s costume, however, was all fleece. I used fabric glue to attach the gold ribbon on the front of the jacket and also near the sleeve hems. The gold ribbon also went along the shoulder seams – he said he wanted the tassel to be chunky? So I ended up using the ends of the gold ribbons on the shoulder and then added an extra one each side to make the tassel look rounded on the shoulders.
The high-waisted white fleece breeches have an elastic back and are flat in the front to create a neater look. The faux boots are also made of fleece and are sewn onto the hem of the breeches – a few years back, I made the boots separately and they kept sliding down because of the movement so he requested these be sewn directly onto the pants – great idea, Logan! The faux boots were cut shorter in the front to avoid bunching at the ankles and longer in the back to help blend into his black sneakers.
Books are a great way of keeping Logan still during photographing!
The hat was constructed from felt and I only needed about a yard of it. I used Logan’s sunhat pattern and the only change I made was widening the brim and then I turned it up to create a triangular shape from above and sewed them in place. He said it kind of looked like a pirate’s hat so I guess I’ll have a pattern ready if I ever had to make a pirate costume. Yes, a 2 in 1!
So serious!
All the fall/Halloween festivities were on Saturday and we ended up catching three of the events. Poor Logan was sweltering in the 70 degrees weather in the afternoon but it later cooled down in the evening by the time we got to the last event so he was comfortable by then. It’s two day later, I’m sitting here writing this and it’s 81 degrees! Let’s see how fickle this weather is on actual Halloween day…
*Update: It really was a freaky Halloween! Warm weather everyday and then boom! It was the kind of cold that makes you hop uncontrollably on on one leg. The kids in their fleece costumes were warm and toasty and trick or treated so comfortably like it was on a fair, sunny day in June.
I didn’t do so well though. My head was so cold and my ears aching even with my hat pull down low. I love this hat I got from Forever21 a few years back – pink, sparkly and it sits so prettily on my head but for the purpose it’s supposed to serve, it failed miserably in keeping my noggin warm. You know how the presence of a problem shuffles your priorities around – well, I’ve been talking about doing a fleece hat with ear flaps since the near end of summer just so that I could make them and be prepared (here I go with being prepared again *sigh) but other things kept creeping up the to the top of the do list. That horrible ear ache got on my behind so here it is… The adult fleece hat with earflaps.
I usually use Blizzard fleece but I used anti-pill because I really hate when it starts to pill after a few wears.
It’s based off of Madeline’s hat that I made her last year *here*. I did make some small changes like widening the back and front as well as rounding it more to show the face. I also slimmed out the ear flap and reshaped the crown so that it’s rounded on the top of the head. However, I made a mistake so the pattern is not ready to be posted yet. I keep forgetting how thick two layers of fleece can be because the pattern’s circumference is 22” so it was snug on the head and it ended up fitting Madeline. I guess she gets a new hat! So back to the drafting table. Once I get the hat pattern graded to 23.5”, which I think should be a comfortable fit, I’ll be posting it. Yay!
Another thing I’m currently working on is the kids neck tie which has an adjustable Velcro neck strap like the bow tie I had done *here*. The tie will be wrapped separately around the neck strap and maybe stitched to the strap so that it won’t move. Logan has a school concert this week and the teacher had asked them to wear red, white, and blue so we went to our usual fabric place, Joann, and he picked it out himself. Since the tie is cut on bias, this print works really well because some patterns are printed crossgrain and would look diagonal after it’s been cut into a tie. Good choice, Logan!
Thinking about what kind of edge finishing I want to do for this.
Ok, so I’ve rambled on long enough. Now, less talky and more sewy!
I traced off a short sleeved t-shirt that fitted her well and lengthened the sleeves to make them long.
A few months ago, Logan competed in his first ever Jiu Jitsu competition in Oklahoma City. He had been practicing really hard for it so I wanted to show our support for him. Immediately, I thought of team t-shirts.
Cinch waist dresses are definitely a wardrobe staple! I think it’s one of those garments you can wear in any season by simply using different fabric weight, adding sleeves, pair them with
tights and boots or some simple flip flops like me! I made this elastic waist dress using a lightweight knit fabric – the drape and hand of this fabric feels absolutely divine. This is one of my
favorite garments to wear when I have flare ups. Another thing is, as I was drafting and sewing this dress I had swollen fingers but since it didn’t require much pulling like when sewing the
elastic, it was really easy to make.
Are you ready to make this dress? Go grab your favorite t-shirt and let’s get started!
