Gracie Dress

Here I am finally getting pictures of Zoey's Easter dress up! I've only been meaning to do that for a week...oops! She came out and helped me take pictures of her Easter baskets (yes plural, she claimed them both!).

I love this dress!! She will definitely have more in larger sizes as she grows. I used a fabric from Kate Spain's new Verna line. I love Verna almost as much as I love this dress!!

Here is the back view. I totally forgot to get one while she was wearing it!

So I had to make this dress twice...I used the Gracie pattern from Portabellopixie, which I really like, but there were some issues. First, I made the 6-12 month size, which according to the weight and measurement for sizes would be correct for my tiny 10 month old. Uuhh, I couldn't get it on her...I still had fabric, and I decided starting from scratch would be easier than figuring out how to fix it, so I made the next size bigger. This time the dress was definitely the right size, but it still wouldn't go on!! I would have had to break Zoey's arms to get them into the armholes, because the seam below the bodice was smaller than her shoulders! So, time to modify!

This is what the back of the dress made from the pattern is supposed to look like:

This is what Zoey's dress looks like now. I had to cut apart the first tier, add on some fabric to finish the edges, and put on a third button.

Now it is possible (and easy) to get on, and still looks adorable!! I still need to modify the smaller dress so it can go over some little girl's shoulders, and find a baby to gift it to, too...Now that I know how to make the pattern work, I am happy with it, but talk about frustrating! If somebody that was less experienced with patterns and sewing were to attempt this pattern, I think they would have problems...But after all that, I will probably still buy Portabellopixie patterns, because they are so dang cute!