So let's pretend Easter wasn't three weeks ago and I'm just now talking about Ivy's Easter dress, okay? I was given this gorgeous material by my friend Sharlet. It was left over fabric from her mother’s dress that she wore to Sharlet's wedding. I absolutely loved it and had been dreaming about the dress I was going to make for Ivy since she gave it to me last Fall.
I ordered some cotton broadcloth to line it. The color was not exactly the same, but I was happy enough with it and I knew it wouldn't show. I wanted something classic and simple. I had planned to buy this pattern from Made by Rae, but after a couple of days of thought, I realized I already had the basic pattern with the Music Box Jumper I had used previously for the pleated jumper.
I ignored the pleats in the Music box pattern and gathered the skirt to fit the bodice. For the flutter sleeve, I used another pattern's sleeve, rounding the edges a bit, so that it looked like a rounded-edge rectangle. I gathered the sleeve at the top, pinning it inside the bodice between the two right sides of fabric. Then I just sewed the bodice following the instructions, being extra careful not to sew the sleeve to the neckline.
Because I gathered the waist instead of pleating it, I only did the buttons on the back of the bodice instead of all the way down the back, like the original pattern instructs. The buttons are from a cardigan I got at a yard sale last summer that was a tad too small and had a stain on it. They look a little green in the picture, but they are silver, I promise.
I love how it turned out, and even more important, Ivy liked it too. She wore it to our Easter Tea Party and by the end it was covered with food (which I knew would happen). I threw it in the wash that night so she could wear it to church the next morning. Thankfully it washes up great, and there are no pleats to iron!
