The Flower Fairy

Last year, for Isabelle's birthday, I made her a Tinkerbell-inspired outfit.  It didn't last very long... the shorts were too short and a tad too small and the shirt had shirring in the back and I am not a good shirrer (is that a word?), so that came undone in no time.  I actually had forgotten all about it until about a month ago when a friend of mine brought it up.  She has a niece that has a birthday in the middle of May and she wanted to know if I could make a dress somewhat similar for her.

I was very flattered.  And very excited.  I would have done it that night if I hadn't had other obligations.

She wanted the whole Tinkerbell feel.  The first thing that I thought of was how the fairies dress in flowers and leaves.  So I sent her a little sketch of a dress with flower petals as a skirt and leaves as the top.  She told me to just go for it. 

The skirt was a no-brainer.  I had to make it really twirly so it had to be a circle skirt.  I just scalloped the bottom of it.  The idea of hemming that was very daunting, so I just used bias tape (thank goodness I happened to have some that worked perfectly, too.).  I kinda screwed up the waistband a bit, thinking I could sew exhausted, and forgot to change the thread and had a wonky pink line running through the white elastic, so I was faced with the idea of getting out the seam ripper, which I hate to do.  I avoid it at all costs.  So I covered the waistband.  It'll probably be a little more comfortable that way, too.

I agonized over the top.  I went through half a dozen ideas from a wrap around pinafore to a halter to a brief consideration of a corset top (but I know what a pain they can be to lace up, so I don't do that unless asked).  I thought about trying my hand at shirring again.  Buttons, no buttons... I literally hadn't decided what to do until I put the rotary cutter to the fabric.  The final result is almost identical to the top I made for Isabelle last year, minus the shirring.

So, without further ado... I introduce The Flower Fairy

Oops, didn't realize this was so blurry...

I added some ties to the back since I scrapped the shirring idea.

If you followed the link at the top of the post, you'll appreciate how happy I am about her hair now.  ;)

Isabelle is VERY long-waisted, so the waistband most likely won't show on the birthday girl

You can't get much twirlier than that!

I was very lucky that the birthday girl happened to be the same size as my kids, so I could make sure it fit and looked OK.  I'm really excited about it.  I need to add a button to the neck of the halter.... I needed to check how it fit first so that I wasn't strangling the poor child.  Auntie loved it and showed the mother of the girl, who said that it matches the colors of her birthday party!  I hope I get to see a picture of the birthday girl wearing it.  =)