Hello!
So last month, my baby girl turned the big 0-4. I still can't believe it! She's such a smart, beautiful, hysterical little love, and lucky doesn't even begin to describe how I feel being her Mama. She is my everything.
And my everything is becoming quite the opinionated young lady! She is not a girly-girl at all. She is into snakes and bugs, getting any-kind-of dirty, and she likes to ride her scooter at a thousand miles per hour. But lately she's been ALL ABOUT twirling. It's that Frozen, I tells'ya. Ever since I made her these Skater Tee peplum tanks (which she spins around in 'like a princess' even though the peplums are only like 5 inches long omgadorable), I knew I needed to make her a legit twirly dress! Never in this poor childs life have I made her a straight-up girl's girl kinda dress!
So, for her 4th birthday, I decided it was time. I gathered tulle from Canada Tulle (precut to 18" wide x 25yds long, awesome!), and some crepe back satin in her fave color from Online Fabric Store (my place of employ - convenient for sure!). But I didn't want to just cover Em in a big ol' purple dress - I wanted it to still have plenty of her personality built in.
How about a scenic African Plains wildlife print!? Yes, ok! Em is very much in love with the characters from Madagascar, so I thought this print would just tickle her silly. It did. :)
The pattern is Tinny from Straight Grain Patterns, and it's just adorable. I chose this pattern because of it's many options. I know I'll be able to use this pattern again and again, and it'll look different each time!
I cut a size 3t, and lengthened the skirt by I think about 10 inches! I knew I wanted the dress to be like ballgown length. If we're doin' this, we're doin' it, amiright?
I ended up using 12 of the 25 yards of tulle in the skirt! Infinite thanks to my bff Beth for helping me corral all of it. I would've added more layers but the smarter people around me told me it was ok to stop.
I hemmed with my rolled hem foot (like this guy). It's not perfection, but I'm pretty happy with it considering satin + circle skirt! I took these pics the day after her big party, so the dress had taken quite a beating by this point. :)
All the twirling:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMYLOU!
