Candy Castle Patterns Sew-Along: It's All Coming Together

Step 6: Attach the Skirt

Omigosh!! The dresses (Pattern: Candy Castle Princess Dress (top skirt omitted) with sash from Peppermint Swirl Dress) are almost finished!!! I am almost totally in love. I say almost because, well, I am super ~~OCD~~ picky with how my projects turn out. And, there's a small detail that I need to fix.

Sunday, we moved onto step 6: Attach the Skirt. This part went together fairly quickly. I just had to gather my skirt to the width of my bodice. Normally, I like to gather with clear elastic, as taught by the fabulous Jocole (seriously a life-changing sewing moment when I learned this), but when you have side seams you need to match, I find gathering with clear elastic can sometimes be finicky. I chose to gather using the traditional method of two parallel lines of long stitching (the longest stitches possible). It takes longer, but makes matching the side seams of the skirt to the side seams of the bodice easy peasy.

After I attached the skirt, I just needed to top-stitch the sash in place. If I had used the sash from the Candy Castle Princess Dress pattern, the sash would have been attached before closing the side seams of the bodice. However, I chose to use the thinner sash from the Peppermint Swirl Dress Pattern which is not sewn into the side seams, but merely top-stitched along the bottom of the sash where it sits on the front bodice.

Size 18M for my 2 year old

Size 3 for my 4 year old

As I was top-stitching my sash on, I was loving it! Then, I took a picture.... and something stuck out like a sore thumb (which will soon be mine after my date with my seam ripper!) I thought I would like the peek of white under the sash, but it turns out, I really don't.

I'm a details gal and when it's not exactly how I pictured it, I take the time to fix it.

Of course, I have to show you the back! For the previous Princess and Peppermint Swirl Dresses I've made, I've used Kam Snaps (easy and fast) or sewn-in snaps (hard to line up and take a while to hand sew in). BUT, I was out of any Kam Snaps that would match and I thought buttons would look fancier anyway. My machine does automatic buttonholes, but it can sometimes be finicky getting them sewn exactly where I want them.

First, I practiced on some scraps (same amount of layers) to see if I could crack the code as to why my buttonholes would sometimes sew longer than intended. After, I sewed several successful buttonholes, I switched out my scraps for my bodice -- and then held my breath. Hahaha.

Normally with snaps, I place the top and the bottom first. Then, folding the back in half to where the snaps meet, you find where the middle one needs placed (I learned this handy tip from the Candy Castle Princess Dress pattern and is also included in the Peppermint Swirl). I do not recommend this method for a sewing machine with finicky buttonhole placement. You will spend lots of time with your seam ripper, standing by a window to catch the best light, ripping out millions of teeny tiny stitches. TRUST ME! I found out the hard way on my yellow bodice and after the 3rd time sewing the same buttonhole, I was rethinking my plan of buttons.

The bottom button hole was stitched 3 times because my middle buttonhole
got sewn way too close to my top one. The bottom one is slightly smaller than
the other two, but I was NOT ripping it out again :)

My pink bodice, however, came out beautifully with 3 perfectly, evenly-spaced buttonholes. On this bodice, I started from the top and worked my way down. Whew!

So there you have it! Two Easter dresses, nearly finished. Today, is actually the last step of the SAL before we show off the finished dresses -- adding embellishments. I'd better get moving so hopefully I can be back with my final versions :)

***Missed a step? Read through my previous posts!***