Flower Girls Dresses

 These dresses, of course, were the easiest and least stressful of the sewing that I had to do for our recent wedding. I'm more familiar and comfortable making things for little girls than any other demographic.
So ... what should we make and out of what kind of fabric, and what color, and, and, and....???

We decided to basically use this Butterick pattern #5705, although Steph didn't want pleats, but rather just simple gathers at the waist. I modified the sleeves and made my own version of the slip underneath which was much better. I guess the pattern companies don't want to make things too complicated so they don't suggest fabrics like nylon chiffon that are not easy to find, but it makes a far superior full slip.

The bride and I decided on a classic silk taffeta. It was costly and I had to be careful not to water stain it as well as pierce it with pins, because those kinds of abuses to this fabric will show up forever. If you get it wet, you have to get it ALL wet, and if you pin it, you should try to do it where you won't see the marks such as on the inside of the seams.

With this in mind I embarked on this project.

 I took the cut out dresses with me to Kathryn's house so I could get going on these dresses while I was helping her and her family. She was on bedrest the last 6 weeks or so of her pregnancy. Due to have this baby in mid March, I went in February for a week to help them out, then I went back there when the little guy (Ford James) was a week old.

 Kathryn borrowed a sewing machine from a kind neighbor, and so I could get some sewing done while I was visiting. It was extremely helpful to get a jump on these dresses, cause I was a little bit freaking out about the amount of sewing I needed to accomplish before June. My goal was actually to get it all finished by May because I knew that other things with the wedding were going to creep in and steal away my time.

 We decided to put white iridescent sashes and inner sleeves on the dresses and make a full attached pettie-slip in white to go underneath the dresses. This really dressed them up along with the fabric choice.

I made a size 7, 2- size 4's and a smallish size 3.

 Fronts and backs of the dresses all finished.

I also made 2 little bow ties for the little nephews to wear. Did I mention that the 4 little girls are the brides nieces?  (All my cute grandchildren.) 

Giving a nice kiss.

 Our sons' beautiful family.

" Is this what you want me to do?"

 Showing off her "petti" while waiting for the Bride to come out of the temple.

 With Grandma Joycie.

 Big boy being as patient as he can.

 For the ring ceremony at our home later and before the reception, the kids walked out of the house before the bride and groom. They were adorable if I may say so.

 They sat very well on the side of the steps leading up to the lawn, and listened to the 12 minute program.

Seriously?

 Here's a good look at the back of the dresses. Those covered buttons took me a bit of time. But they look great.

Love this!

"Dancin' the Night Away."

There are so many other photos of these cute little people. Thanks for indulging me and looking at 25 pictures of ONE dress.

THE END

You can go back to what you were doing.