Birthday Dress

I have a problem; actually it’s more like a condition, where I wait till the last minute for EVERYTHING. Not only am I a procrastinator, but I’m also a perfectionist.  This is NOT a good combo.  Waiting till the very last minute and then needing everything to be perfect is a recipe for disaster.  In an internal effort to better my worst character flaws (and this is definitely one) I've been trying to be better about doing things before they are “absolutely due”.

This year when April rolled around, I started thinking about Liv’s birthday.  I had plans to make it a very cutesy, looks like I’m a stay at home mom and have tons of time, event.  She needed to be dressed as adorably as all the decorations, that I had yet to make, would be.  Not wanting to wait until the last minute I looked online and ordered her a dress from Nordstrom (my absolutely favorite department store of all time). 

When I ordered the dress I had thought it was made out of knit, but when it came in it was clearly cotton.  I tried it on Liv, and it was really cute…..and really WHITE.  WHAT WAS I THINKING??  She was going to ruin that dress in 3.5 seconds….and I had paid WAY too much for it ($38….seriously…what was I thinking).  I decided to make her a birthday dress instead, but kept the dress just in case I ran out of time.

I had basically married myself to the idea of making Liv her birthday dress, but did I leave myself enough time?  Of course not!  I finished Liv’s birthday dress at 1pm the day before her birthday.  It was intense, but I was really happy with how it turned out.

I used Simplicity 1624 for a pattern.  I LOVED view A with the ruffles.  It just looked classic little girl cute to me.  What I didn't think about when I started sewing this dress was how damn annoying those ruffles would be to attach.  They nearly killed me.

I had THE MOST PERFECT material in my stash for the dress.  I basically buy anything with weenie dogs on it as an ode to Guinness.  This print I got at Joann’s and it KILLED me.  Weenie dogs and rain boots…could it get any cuter?  NO.  The answer is no.

The dress turned out adorable.  The only thing that I didn't like about the pattern is that the waist seam was exposed inside the dress.  I like, especially in kids clothes, when this is covered.  I feel like when it isn’t, it bothers their little bellies.  So, next time (if there’s a next time), I would sew a bodice lining or put a ribbon over the seam.

Here are a few pics of the dress in action at the party.  We had it at my in laws cause they have a nice deck and in-closed backyard.  It was a small affair with a couple dozen delicious cupcakes from my favorite local cupcake bakery.  Yup, all that decoration planning was thrown out the window, and decorations were bought at Iparty.  It was a good day.

Maybe next year I'll spend less time pinning decorations and more time ACTUALLY making them.  Maybe.