Sweet Pickins Fairy Tale Dress

My eldest turns 8 next week and for her birthday I decided to replace her Dotty Ombre Fairy Tale Dress.  She Loves -- and I mean loves with a capital "L" -- that dress.  Wears it to all sorts of places that don't really call for a party dress -- to the ball park to watch me play softball (paired with her secret agent trench, which amused my teammates to no end!), to school where she hangs upside down on the monkey bars every chance she gets, to the grocery store, to play in the back yard.  You get the picture.

I still love the dress, too, but it makes me cringe to see it on her -- it is a size 6 and was definitely getting too small -- hard to do up and bunching around the armpits.   This one is a size 7 with added length in the bodice and skirt.  It's similar enough to the other that I hope she'll be happy to retire it :).

Changes I made: I didn't use the pattern pieces for the skirt -- just cut the width of fabric by the length I wanted, eliminating the side seams.  I left off the collar and the sleeves (obviously!) and dropped the neckline by about an inch. I had tonnes of bias tape left over from the previous dress so used it for piping around the arms, neck and waist.  I struggled with the armholes and was really wishing that I'd made my life easier by finishing them with bias tape as the pattern specifies.  I had to hand stitch the lining in place because I couldn't figure out how else to do it and trying to get it all smooth and in the right place was a complete nightmare.

The fabric is Sweet Pickins Stitched Circles in Aloe ordered ages ago from fabric.com.  I lined it with a super lightweight cotton voile from fabricland.  I included the tulle because I think the pouffy skirt is part of the appeal.

I'm excited to give it to her because she has no idea idea I'm making it.  I hope she'll be happy.

Fabrics: sweet pickins $8.97, cotton voile lining $8.93, tulle $0.86, yellow bias tape $1.95
Notions: invisible zip $3.55
Pattern: used before (cost per use 5.36)

Total: $24.26