The Homecoming Dress

Ah, the marathon sewing project is finally finished.

It didn't actually take forever...just three days of sewing...but it sure felt like an eternity.

(These first couple of pictures aren't a good representation of the color. The fabric was really more of a plum.) Why did this dress take so long? So many darts! Five in each sleeve! ...2 sleeves, with darted linings makes twenty darts just to put the sleeves together. Ugh.

(Besides which, I had to redo one of the sleeves...since my daughter doesn't have one tiny arm and one giant one...so that's really thirty.) 

...but I do like having my dresses lined.

Also, another cute and time consuming detail, the skirt has pleats instead of a gather.

I thought I disliked gathering....it's not so bad.

So, I got to baste each pleat...

...and then remove all of those basting stitches.

I'm so lazy.

We finally got to the last stitches an hour of so before the dance.

Now you can see the pretty plum color Sofi chose.

Sofia said she'd even wear it inside-out. :)

I loved the lace overlay, even though it was a little scary for me to work with.

(And I want to make a million of those peter pan collars! It was so fast and easy! Sofia added gold seed beads where the lace pattern was scarce.)

....and Anthony looked handsome too...and I didn't even have to sew anything for him! :)