Chapel dress

I have been sewing lately, just working on a big order of diapers for my friend T, and waiting to post till I'm done with all of them. Almost there!

I took a break from that project a few nights ago to sew Littles' new chapel dress for school. As I've mentioned previously, these dresses cost about $50 if purchased in a store, so last fall, I got some fabric from Joann's to make one myself. They offered me the end of the bolt -- basically, if what you request to be cut leaves less than a yard or so on the bolt, the cutter will sometimes offer the remaining fabric to you at the remnant price (50% off the current price). The remaining fabric was nearly enough for another dress, so I got just a little bit more from a different bolt and figured I'd make another dress for her in the next size up.

I actually did all the cutting and everything last fall, and the cut fabric pieces have just been sitting around waiting to be sewn up. Of course, I waited till the night before the first chapel day to do it :) Luckily, it's an easy pattern that sews up quickly. I did find that the fabric frays very easily, so I ended up using my serger on a lot of it, to quickly finish the edges so they wouldn't fray. I love that thing!

Here's the end result. Simplicity 9854, in size 4 (the shirt is store bought):

It's a little big, but that's perfect. The size 3 was a little big on her last fall, and by the end of the school year, it was baaaaaaaaarely big enough.