Easter (Part 2)

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Easter Sunday was a beautiful day in more ways than one... the sunshine, the warmer weather, the church service, getting together with family, the dinner.... everything was just beautiful. It will go down in my memory as one of the best.

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This year's Easter Dress was special. I attempted and accomplished some new sewing hurdles and with some of my most treasured fabric finds.

We'll start with the slip. Vintage pattern, of course, but I melded view 1 with view 3. Unfortunately with vintage patterns, some of the techniques for construction either lack good illustrations or do not necessarily use the best methods, so I wasn't very impressed with the collar, placket and arm details. Alas, it turned out well in the skirt, and that was what was most important - a girl must have maximum puff in the skirt.

Thankfully, I brought my camera to the Easter Egg coloring and one of the Auntie's took photos and snapped this one of me stitching away on the hem of the slip. Again, blind hemming by hand on sheer fabric for what seemed liked miles!

Yes, there is a seam down the center front because I forgot to cut the piece on the fold. I had used my best pima cotton for the slip for the softest touch against SweetPea's skin and didn't want to waste any so I just stitched the two pieces together - after all, it wouldn't be seen anyway.

I used my vintage Singer Ruffler Attachment for the crinolin (which I found last summer at the annual Antique Festival) - that was a lot of gathering and using the Ruffler made it a 1000 times easier. The gathers turned out beautifully. For the lower part of the hem I adjusted the attachment for plaiting.

As you know, this year's dress has been on my mind for awhile. I decided on a variation between view 1 and view 2.

I adore her sweet teasing expression in this photo.

The slip swished when she walked. She loved it. I adored it.

I was very pleased with how the back turned out, too... especially the big bow!

The pattern called for just a narrow hem on the tie sides and ends - I didn't like the idea for that particular look, so I doubled the pattern cutting and stitched two pieces for each tie together then turned each one right side out. A much cleaner look, don't you think?

The collar and sleeves were a bit tricky. I spent two hours on the collar alone because the organdy flocked dotted fabric was difficult to work with and I wanted it to be perfectly symmetrical with no puckering. Initially I didn't have the extra trim between the two sleeve fabrics, but decided it was necessary for symmetry. I also added some crinolin on the underside of the top part of the sleeve, so that each one would puff upward. The hem of each sleeve needed to be hand stitched under - I had to be extra careful blind stitching with sheer fabric.

Hubby bought me a corsage and had Cowboy in tow, so they conspired to have "Brother" get SweetPea her first corsage - one for her little wrist. She was very proud!

It was a bit breezy around that tree, so it's hard to tell, but both sleeves were equally puffy and the skirt poofed out just like the olden days.