Utah County Mom: Flower girl dress

My brother got married yesterday so I made Lily a flower girl dress using the

summer dress pattern

I had made for her earlier.  I used dupioni silk because it’s so pretty knowing a toddler dress out of this fabric may only be wearable once.  Dupioni silk stains easily – even with just water – and cannot be washed.  I am still pleased with my fabric choice but wouldn’t recommend it if you are planning on using the dress over and over.

 Since I was using silk instead of cotton, I also cut out lining using the same pattern.  I didn’t cut out the sleeves but did cut out of the front and back pieces out of lining as well.

*When using dupioni silk, don’t cut along the fold of the fabric if it was originally on a bolt.  You will have a really hard time getting the wrinkle out since you can only iron on a low heat setting.  I learned the hard was it’s better to avoid that fold all together if possible.

After the pieces were all cut out, I sewed along the shoulder and side seams for the lining pieces and then the silk pieces.  I surged all of the raw edges, and then sewed the lining and silk together along the neck using a 3/8 inch seam allowance.  (picture below)

 I trimmed the seam along the neck edge after it was sewn and clipped along the curves.  Then I sewed the clipped seam allowance to the lining as shown below.

After that I sewed on the sleeves making sure to sew it onto the silk and lining.  I sewed on the zipper making sure to do the same.  I hemmed the lining skirt 1 inch shorter than I hemmed the silk.  For this dress I added a 7 inch zipper instead of buttons.  I also did a 2.75″ wide white sash.

My husband had school during the reception and wasn’t able to get away so it was difficult to get a good picture of Lily.

 I think the dress turned out great.  I loved the flowers the florist made for Lily’s pigtails – they were the perfect touch!