So a few weeks ago, my soon-to-be sister-in-law (holy hyphens!) asked me if I'd consider making flower girl dresses for my girls and their two cousins. I, of course, jumped at the chance, as I love having an excuse to buy fabric and think out ideas for how to make something look nicer. I was concerned, though, as most of my projects turn out... iffy. But, I put together a list of cute ideas, most with tutorials, so I figured I'd be safe. Of course, she chose the one dress on the list that I didn't have a tutorial for, but I decided to go for it anyway, and try to recreate the dress (with a few alterations, as the bride requested (and I gladly obliged to)). And so, 2.5 dresses later, I present you with my first official J. Crew knock-off/flower girl dress:
(the front) and then the back (notice the invisible zipper, yeah, I'm kind of awesome like that):
Oh, and see that little bit of gingham peeking through there?
well, turns out I'm slightly crazy, and decided to make the dress basically reversible. It was the only way I could figure out to get the layers just right, and to keep the bodice beautiful inside with no exposed seams (some of us aren't so lucky as to have a serger). 
The only issue with a zipper in a reversible dress is that it's not so invisible on the inside... but I'm ok with that. I love the gingham so much!
I still need to finish the sleeves. I can't decide if I should just roll them under and top stitch them, or use white bias tape (the yellows are slightly different shades, so I don't want to put the yellow on the inside dress... if that makes any sense at all), or do a handstitched invisible stitch to close them off. And I need to add a sash, just need to check with the bride on whether she wants them to tie in the front or the back. Maybe I'll somehow just do loops, so it can be moved from front to back anyway... hmmm. Not sure yet.
Anyway, I'm pretty darn excited about how they're turning out. 1 down, 4 more to go. The first one is always the hardest and longest to figure out, right? Right. Hopefully someday I'll have better pictures in real light with a girl inside the dress, but for today--I'm too excited not to share. :)
Raise your hand if you love yellow circle-skirt dresses (raises hand crazily)!! After this, though, I don't think I'll be working with yellow for at least a little while. Seriously.
Raise your hand if you love yellow circle-skirt dresses (raises hand crazily)!! After this, though, I don't think I'll be working with yellow for at least a little while. Seriously.
18 comments:
*raises hand*
Way to go, especially without a tutorial! And reversible?! And a hidden zipper! Looks so cute. I can't wait to see the girls in them.
the gingham is ADORABLE. you can make your own bias tape; let me know if you need a link to a tutorial. WAY TO GO!!!!
Love Love LOVE! I have a serger, two actually (one needs to be serviced badly) and I STILL like to line everything. And how can you not love gingham inside? So so cute. As for the sleeves, I'd probably just press them both up inside the sleeve and topstitch them together. You might have to baste them first so there isn't any slipping, but that's probably what I'd do. I can't wait to see these with the sash! They are going to be absolutely adorable!
Oh, also I'd do fabric belt loops to hold the sash on. Or twist together a dual thickness (of all six strands x 2) of embroidery floss. Don't try thread loops, they will be rendered completely useless with any sizeable sash.
I didn't know I LOVED yellow circle skirt dresses until this post! These are turning out sooo cute!
So cute. You probably should just hand stitch the sleeves on this one, since you don't have any hems showing anywhere else. Maybe for the next ones you can sew the sleeves right side together first? Also, I am so excited you introduced me to shearing a few posts back. I am making Leah a 4th of july dress with peasant sleeves. How much material do you think I need?
wow adorable! I love how it turned out, Kim was telling me about these dresses today, go you for making it up!
This is my hands waving wildly over my head while I'm screaming out how proud I am of my daughter. Well done sweetie.
Fun! Love the gingham! And apparently exposed zippers are hot now. :)
Love them! And I think the exposed zipper on the gingham side is actually really cute. It's cuter on that side than it would be on the solid yellow too. And I LOVE the gingham! I'm such a sucker for it. :) Yay Jessie!
These are so adorable! Great idea! I featured your lovely dresses on my blog's "Tuesday Treasures" post this morning!
http://sweetcsdesigns.com/archives/760
Love, love...I found your blog through a link party and LOVE it! I am your newest follower and would love it if you would check out my blog and follow me too! Thanks!
http://mycraftyourcraft.blogspot.com/
those look great! I think you should just top stitch the sleeves closed. I think the simplicity of the dress is very nice and don't need to add anything extra like binding. Fantastic job!
Adorable! Great that you made it reversible!
So cute! Definitely do loops especially if you ever plan to turn it inside out. You don't want a bow inside the dress. I'd also hand stitch the sleeves.
Great work!
Oooo, that is adorable. I love the yellow.
Oh I love these! I was inspired by the same JCrew dress for my sunny little miss dress (http://madeitonmonday.blogspot.com/2011/05/tutorial-sunny-little-miss-dress.html) but it was no longer listed when I went to link back to the dress and never saved an image. I'm so glad to find you have the original. Your dresses turned out so sweetly!
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