After making this pattern for Carolin I kept thinking of ways to make it for my other daughters. They are getting older and more picky but I really want to be able to sew some things for them yet. I took them with me to the fabric store and we picked out fabrics for their own versions of the Garden Party dress.
Last week I finished Melissa's version. She chose a black with white spots polyester fabric (very slippery fabric) and I paired it with a black cotton voile to line it with.
I made quite a few changes to the pattern to make this work as the pattern doesn't include lining and the construction of the dress doesn't really lend itself well to lining either. First I separated the front bodice and skirt and added seam allowance to each piece. For the top of the dress I cut out both fabrics and then basted each piece together and then treated them as one fabric. For example I cut out four sleeves, two in the spotted fabric and two in the black voile. I basted each spotted sleeve piece to a voile sleeve piece and then after that treated them as one single fabric. It worked out very well over all. Then for the skirt I sewed the outer layer and the inside voile separately then gathered them together and stitched them to the finished bodice. The original pattern has you sew the skirt pieces onto the bodice first and the stitch up the side seams which would not have worked with a lining.
One other change I made was to run elastic through the waistband. Melissa is quite picky about loose fitting dresses. I'm pretty sure she thinks it looks to childish. I also put a hook and eye closure in rather than a button and loop.
Anyway, she is happy with the dress and so am I. I do wish I had made it a tad larger, but this will do for this summer anyway.
I hope to make another Garden Party Dress for Deanna. I have plans for different alterations to make it look different again. Then I'll take a photo of all three girls in their very different dresses.
