Christmas dress #1

I know I haven't been able to post as often as I like. The little man is a demanding guy, but he is starting to become a bit more social, and dare I hope, happy with a dash of contentment. Not too much contentment, of course, because he wouldn't want his Mommy to completely forget about him, but just a touch which is a great deal more than he had before.

We love him.

With Christmas programs and recitals coming up all December long, sewing needed to happen even if the little man didn't think it was as important as he is.

Amy Butler fabric was on a one day sale at Fabric.com several weeks ago and I jumped on it. I have been in love with this collection since it came out last year. I let Princess look at all the fabric with me online so she could pick what she wanted. Seriously can't go wrong with Amy Butler so I knew whatever she picked would be great. She chose Paradise Garden in periwinkle. I was supremely happy with her choice because it is actually my fav. I didn't want to jinx it and tell her that though.

The pattern we used didn't have the ruffle at the neck. The print was so bold, I felt like it needed something to give the eyes something to rest on so I found some of this blue Kona Cotton in my stash (I don't know the color-sorry) .

We came up with a ruffle for the neckline. It is a circular ruffle with no gathering.

I didn't need a very long ruffle since it is for a small girl so I drew a circle using one of our dinner plates and then a smaller circle in the middle of the first circle using a small bowl. Then I cut out the large circle with a straight cut to the interior circle and cut out the interior circle. If you needed a longer ruffle you would cut out a spiral. Then, when it is laid out flat the fabric will naturally ruffle. So cute and soft looking. I hemmed the ruffle with a small rolled hem.

If I didn't do a good job in explaining the ruffle, let me know I could try to do a tute sometime.

For her hair, I made a headband out of FOE (fold over elastic) and glued a flower to a hair clip. Crazy girl wanted the flower even bigger.

Apparently when you are 8, you can never have too many ruffles and super big flowers.