a dress for the birthday girl

I kind of love making dresses for my little girls, and birthday dresses are the very best kind. This is the 4th birthday dress for this little love of mine (others here, here, and here) and it is possibly my favorite yet. It is fun as she gets older to get more input from her about what she'd like. This year the requirement, once again, was a spinny dress. She first was going for something like this, but after I explained how freaking hot all those layers would be in the dead of summer, we decided maybe something a little lighter was in order. Enter the Scene VI dress.

It is perfect. I am not kidding when I say that I want one in my size. We looked through my voile scraps to pick fabrics for the top, opting to omit the piecing and just have one fabric triangles. She picked the fabric placements and chose the color for the skirt, and it is just awesome. And let me tell you, this dress can spin. I wish I had a picture of it, but my model was being uncooperative so I'll have to try again later.

I made her a 3T with the 4T length for my tall skinny girl and it fits perfectly. I probably could have gotten away with the 4 all around, but honestly, I won't mind making her another when she outgrows it. The hardest part was sewing around for the elastic casing (I don't really understand the elastic, but oh well) and I definitely had the skirt get a little wonky. Hemming was another headache, but worth it in the end....as long as you don't look too closely, it's fine. Also it called for 1.5" elastic and I used about half that width. The most exciting part was putting in the bra slider. It was simple and makes this so much easier. That is one of the main problems with kids dresses, the straps are either not adjustable or they tie and come undone.

Really, I hope she has a great time wearing this and spinning in it for her birthday. And I do honestly hope I get to make more of these beautiful dresses in the future.