Butterfly Dress Complete

A little way back I started a dress for my daughter, and now that I have finished it, I wanted to share it with you. The dress began when we were following Project Runway and they did looks for girls inspired by the American Girl line. I teach sewing at a middle school, and the girls watch Project Runway and we are still joking about the snaps Sandya ran all the way to the bum of a “big girl’s” jump suit. I digress.

The designers did a look for real girls, and since I live with my model I thought I would do a real life look for her.

Because I was making a life size look, and because I live in a house where we have real laundry, I did not finish my look in the allotted time. But I did finish it. And not too much past the deadline. Then, the best critique ever from the most important judge… The dress was worn to school!!! Yeah! I win!

(Swoon.)
I want to share some of the behind the scenes construction.

I started with the ruffle idea, but needed to infuse something into it. There needed to be a detail that brought it up out of “just a plain dress”. So I decided to line the top section with the orange contrast. I cut the orange top 3/4 inch bigger than the white section of the top. And that was just enough. When I sewed them together, I turned the orange over to the front, and top stitched it down so that there would be a ribbon of contrast showing.

I made some little bike shorts to go under the dress, because she likes to swing on monkey bars a lot. : )

The shorts don’t show up under the dress right now. But I was really proud of how they came out.

I thought the look was successful. And the fact that she wore it for more than a modeling session is the best vote I could ever get! What a sweet victory.
Happy sewing.