I started a couple traditions with my daughter for her birthday. Its in early summer, but I didn’t have a blog then. Stick with me here, ok? ð
The first thing I do, is get a picture of her when she wakes up, with a birthday balloon. Something about a bedhead that I can’t resist!
And the second thing is to make her a dress. The past two years, I have used the same pattern (Lorelei Dress by EBeth Designs) with slight modifications.
The fabric is a very thin cotton, I think lawn weight. Before I added the trimmings, it had looked very plain, and I was kind of disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to make the dress for her party. It just wasn’t party material at the time. I wanted something fancy for her first birthday party.
A day later, I had an idea of adding some ribbon to the bottom hem. I went to the store and got some ruffley pink ribbon and a stain cream ribbon. I added them to the hem of the dress and followed it to the belt. Wow! It was a transformation, even my husband was wowed by the change! He is not easily impressed with these things.
I had narrowed the belt because I didn’t think a big belt would look good on such a tiny girl. I then added some glitter to the belt to add some more sparkle. Who doesn’t like sparkles?!
The pattern calls for tulle to be added to the lining to have it flare out. But I didn’t have any tulle and didn’t really want to put it in the dress. I got out some quilting cotton that was fairly stiff and used that as my lining. Many washes later, the dress still flares out just as it would have with the tulle. I’ll just put that money I saved back into more delish fabrics! ð
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The second year, the dress was made from another light cotton with raised dots to give a bit of texture to it. I made a size 3T bodice and a 8 skirt since I wanted it to come down to her ankles.
I had forgotten how confusing the yoke could be and definitely messed it up. First I thought I had cut it too small because once attached, the armholes were TINY. So I re-cut the entire yoke in a larger size, and was pinning it down I realized I was doing it upside down! Thankfully, I had not trashed the original yoke, dug it out and reattached it the right way. Lo and behold! It worked, just like it is supposed to! *sigh* I think I wasted about 40 minutes with that. Live and learn, live and learn.
I used cotton from an old bed sheet that is pretty stiff, as the lining. No tulle again. I knew from the beginning, I was going to add some kind of trimming to the hem but didn’t know what I wanted to do. Once I had constructed the dress, I tried it on for size. It looked okay, but again plain.
I found myself in the remnants section of Joann with the perfect color blue cotton/rayon. I also picked up a light blue (almost off-white) satin ribbon just in case.
I used a rolled hem foot to hem the fabric “ribbon” and attached it to the dress. It still felt like it was missing something, so I added the satin ribbon I had gotten in between the dress and the blue fabric ribbon. The light color really brought out the blue.
For the belt, I kept it the original width and really like the wide belt now! The belt was made from the same blue cotton/rayon with the satin ribbon I used at the hem.
The girl loves this dress. Every time she puts it on, she does not want to take it off! I think I’m going to make it again next year.
Pattern Info:
Pattern Name: Lorelei Dress by EBeth Designs
Size: 3T bodice; 3T waist and 8 height for skirt
Modifications:
– Increased length because I wanted a longer dress.
– Added a dark blue strip of fabric and a light blue ribbon as the hem rather than keep it plain. Used the same for the belt to tie it all together.
Would I recommend it? Yes! Such a pretty pattern that can be dressed up or down based on fabric choices.