flower girl dress

A few months before my sister-in-laws wedding she made the comment that she wasn't going to be very picky about the dress my daughter (the flower girl) wears in her wedding, that she doesn't even care if I make it.  Well, say no more.  I decided almost right away that I wanted to make her flower girl dress.  I hopped online in search of patterns, but the results were minimal.  There aren't many patterns out there for dressy clothes unless you're making a baptismal gown (too small) or a prom gown (too large).  Eventually I found a pattern on etsy to use for the bodice.  For the bottom half I used a tutorial for making a "pick up" skirt. 

I didn't want to jump right into THE dress, so I made a couple trial dresses first.  The purpose of the trial dresses were twofold.  It allowed me to get the size right, but it also gave me and the bride a chance to change our minds about the whole thing. 

After doing two trial dresses I felt confident enough to go ahead and make the flower girl dress.  I was almost completely done when, wouldn't you know it, I decided I wasn't happy with the length or fullness of the skirt!  I bought more dupioni silk (oh la la!) and redid the entire bottom half.  In the end, I was extremely happy with the dress (not to toot my own horn or anything). 

Here's the finished product worn by my beautiful daughter being escorted by her loving brother.

back view....kind of

side view

Here's trial dress #1 - size 18 months, currently for sale on my etsy page

 

Trial dress #2 - size 24 month, also for sale on my etsy page

And here's my first attempt at the flower girl dress - too short and not full enough.