Saturday, March 23, 2013

Easter Basket Dress

 Easter dress sew and tell here today...

The pattern: Oliver+S Fairy Tale Dress, size 5, sleeveless, collarless, no bow, no crinoline (there is a tutu under the skirt for fullness)

The fabrics: bright green and hot pink, Timeless Treasures Fabrics

The mods: Easter basket bodice (I got this waist weaving detail idea from cathgrace). 2 Easter egg pockets (egg-shaped hole pockets, they are inset pockets (floating) with visible pocket lining in pink). And that is not all my friends, no that is not all… teeny tiny bunny hidden inside a pocket!

 After assembling the bodice, I put it on the dress form, and weaved 1.5 inch wide ribbon on it to see if that would be a good width for all the basket pieces. It looked fine, so I decided to make the basket pieces 1.5 inches in width.
 I cut out 13 pieces at 3.5 inches X 5.25 inches and 2 pieces at 3.5 inches X 27 inches.
 I used a circle cut out of cardstock to get the curve on top and sewed all those pieces together.
 I tacked down the tops (hand sewn) and baste stitched around the bottom.
 I added 3 box pleats to the front of the skirt.
 Drew an egg shape on white fabric for the lining of the pocket.
 Sewed along the line and cut through both layers in the middle.
 Clipped the curves.
 Pushed the white fabric through the hole, topstitched it, then attached pompom trim (hand sewn).
 Added a loop of ribbon along the seam of the bottom of the pocket.
 Here is the loop at the bottom of the pocket, this is where the teeny tiny bunny is attached (so it doesn't get lost).
 The knitted bunny is attached by crochet chain, so it is removable because we don't want the bunny going for a ride in the wash machine :)
 The bunny is her favorite part and mine, too.
 I put those loops at the bottom of both pockets, so she can decide which pocket the bunny will go in.
The teeny tiny knitted bunny is a free pattern, she was knit with 2 yarns: Alpaca Silk and Brushed Suri leftover from my scoop neck vest I knitted for myself over 4 years ago. She is a very fortune bunny having 4 knit dresses! It's another free knitting pattern called itty bitty dress.
 Here's another idea... add pompom trim to the neckline and arm holes... this was actually my daughter's idea, she took some pompom trim and placed it on the neckline (on the dress form).
 A Blessed Easter to all of you who celebrate it. Here is Frozen Ice Block, Minnesota this is what Easter egg hunting will look like this year... kids diving into the snow in order to dig out those Easter eggs!!
PS this is the 4th dress I've sewn using the Fairy Tale dress pattern, see the others here, here, and here