Garden Party Dress

This beautiful girl had a birthday recently and turned 8!

I had decided months beforehand that I was going to design her a special empire waist, long white dress, with a knit lacy over-lay, using the Building Block Dress Book.  

I had the idea of what to do all mentally designed in my head.

Upon walking in to Jo-Anns, my eye first caught this darling sports cotton with red and blue flowers.  I cataloged it away as "something cute", but not what I envisioned and continued looking around for what I had planned.  Then I ran into all kinds of problems from fabric choice, to quality, to price.

Eventually I circled back to the cute (on sale!) flowered material and instantly changed my vision, remembering the garden party dress pattern I had at home.

This is the third time I've made this dress, seen HERE and HERE.

       

Wow, look how she's grown!

I love this simple pattern (only ONE button to stitch) that yields really beautiful results.

I added inseam pockets, a feature this girl loves!  I'm pretty sure every dress I make for her, in the future, must include pockets!

I also lengthened the dress by a full 10", so it would be floor length.  

Which made the dress seem so eloquent. 

Overall, this dress turned out beautiful and my dear was very thrilled when she saw it!