Procrastinators Anonymous - Meeting Tomorrow

I enjoy sewing for Journey but as usual I procrastinate and find myself in a time crunch. Stephanie asked me to make Journey's Easter dress MONTHS beforehand, even gave me the pattern she wanted me to use and the color. The pattern was vintage and she wanted purple/lavender. Everything else was up to me. I couldn't decide exactly what I wanted to do, so I didn't do anything until the last minute.

The dress pattern is a simple design with puffed sleeves, and a slightly empire waist. The date of the pattern was 1968 I think. It was really easy to sew. One thing that was a surprise is how SHORT the finished dress turned out.

I made an overlay on the bodice to add a little interest. It ended up making the dress look like it was from the 40's. I did a similar effect on the sleeves. I added ric rac everywhere. The pattern didn't call for any piping, but it definitely needed it, so I added it to the waist and sleeve overlay.

I adapted a design in Sewing With Whimsy by Kerri Mecca. The design features a lattice effect along the hem of a sundress with ric-rac flowers scattered around. The instructions said to create the hem on tear or wash-away stabilizer, flat, then sew it to the dress. The lattice hem "floats" at the bottom of the skirt. I was worried that she would snag it on something so I stitched the lattice on the skirt, and didn't have it "float." It turned out cute.

The ric rac flowers were super easy to do, but time consuming. The design called for glass beads in the center of the flowers, but I used pearls. They turned out really cute. I bought ric rac locally and had to make do with the colors and sizes I could find. If I make these ric rac flowers again I think I will order some ric rac from Kerri Mecca's website.

I don't have a picture of Journey in her hat, but I used a 1940's hat pattern, shown below.

So . . . Journey's birthday is in December - Stephanie thinks I should start on it now.