{Tadah!} Tea Party Dress

Finally.

I'm sure you can relate when I tell you I bought this pattern on Release Day (last Fall) and then watched it collect {figurative} dust in my computer archives.  Now, it's not nearly as vintage as some of my PDFs I've collected over the years and have yet to sew, but the Tea Party Dress by Tadah! Patterns was one I was super excited to dive into.

Easter seemed like the perfect excuse to try it out.  I had finished my youngest daughter's dress with weeks to spare so I made sure to procrastinate as much as possible and start two nights before Easter.  Did I mention I also had house guests arriving?  I work best under pressure. HA!

Before I began, my daughter and I sat down together and looked at all of the pattern options and poured through all the tester photographs on Facebook to see how each one looked.  I let my daughter have full design control on her dress and she had so much fun!  She chose: Boat Neck, Cutout Back, Mini Cap Sleeves, High Arm Openings and Circle Skirt.

We had picked out the fabrics at Hobby Lobby -- it was love at first sight!

Per my daughter's measurements, she was between a 2/3 width and a 5/6 height (she turns 7 next week -- HAHA).  With no time to muslin, I went with a 3 width and 5 height.  I sewed during the wee hours of the night, until I got to the last seam.  This construction of the dress is different than I've ever sewed, but it's pretty ingenious.  As I was checking the final fit before finishing, I realized that my daughter's waist was far too skinny for the size 3 width.

I could see straight down the cutout in her back.  Whoops!  It was the day before Easter. YIKES.

The bodice overlap at the shoulders was fine, but the waist overlap needed an extra set of buttons and a full overlap.  So while my daughter slept and dreamed of the Easter Bunny visiting, I cautiously sewed my button holes, overlapped the bodice (and thus the skirt) and prayed she would have a dress to wear to church.   It was a perfect fit.

Whew!

We are in love!  Please don't let my daughter's abnormal sizing deter you from this lovely pattern -- I'm used to it now and why I have fitting before I finish.  We can't wait to design her next dress together :D

P.S.  The twirl of the circle skirt is a-m-a-z-i-n-g!  I cannot even show the full twirl because I forgot to have her put little shorts on underneath for pictures.  Let's just say, it's full twirl.