My projects: Easter Dresses

The spring is a super busy time for us.  It starts with Kate’s birthday in March, Easter usually in April, and Rebecca & Caroline’s birthdays in May.  Everyone usually gets a new outfit for these occasions, which makes it even more busy.  This year I decided to use Kate’s birthday dress as her Easter dress, as well.

That meant I needed to decide what style of dress I wanted to make for Easter — in February!  I knew I wanted to use Thomas Knauer’s fabric in the Pear Tree collection.  What I love most about his collections is that they come in multiple colors so I can make dresses that are similar but not exactly the same for the girls.

I used a dress that I had made a few times before:  Simplicity 5695.  View D is my favorite but this time I put a spin on it.

I shortened the length of the dress a few inches to add the contrasting band of fabric before adding the ruffle layer along the bottom.  I really kind of winged it and the dresses got much better by the time I did Rebecca’s.  With Kate’s (which I made first), I didn’t realize I needed to line up the height of the contrasting band at the seams and one side is a little off.  It’s probably not too noticeable to someone who doesn’t sew, but I noticed it and now it drives me crazy.

Also, if you look at this picture:

you can see that I didn’t put elastic on Rebecca’s sleeves.  After following the directions on the pattern, I found that the elastic is too tight.  I tried to make this dress’s sleeves a little looser but by the time I got to Rebecca’s I just decided to leave them out.  This way I don’t have to worry about it shrinking or the girls outgrowing the sleeve size.

What I love about this style of dress is that it grows with the girls.  As they grow, it can be worn as a tunic and even as a shirt.  The girls will tell you that it’s a good dress to play in.  It has a lot of movement around the middle and isn’t restricting in any way.

I also made the headbands they are wearing.  They were easy to do once I scaled down the pattern.  The pattern was sized for an adult so it took some trial an error to adjust the length & width.  This was the perfect thing to use all the dress scraps for!  The girls LOVE theirs and wear them even when they don’t match their outfit!

xoxo
–k