Princess Dress and Party!

My daughter has recently developed an interest in princesses and playing dress up. I decided to take on the challenge of sewing a princess dress. I’ve made many dresses, including the princess-like 1st birthday dress, but I wanted to make something different, so I did some research and then bought fabric I thought she would love, and designed a dress. I made several adjustments during the process and added embellishments.


Since I did this all during the process of making it, I decided to take pictures instead of video like I usually do.

 

There is no pattern for this since I designed the dress as I went. I used one of her regular party dress to eyeball the correct sizing for a 3t dress. (This is what you can do too!)

So below are pictures and some steps. If you want to design a similar one just use a dress to get an idea of the sizing. I don’t work with a lot of tulle sewing, so it didn’t turn out the best, but I’m proud of the end results, and she loves it too!

So I first made the front and two back pieces. You can copy these shapes from the picture and use a dress for sizing.

I ended up making another three pieces (another front and two back pieces) and using it as the inside of the dress.  So I took pattern facing pattern for the front piece and left a 3 inch space to pull it right side out.  Then I sewed this shut and ironed it all. I also used sparkly elastic and pinned it in between the pattern facing pattern (this is what I should have done but forgot and ended up just sewing it to the top).

I also added a tulle happy birthday and two pieces of silver design on the front. You can add or not add as many embellishments as you want.

Next, I used interfacing ironed on both back pieces and then used white hair ties cut in half.  I pinned the half hair ties facing inwards in between the pattern facing pattern pieces then sewed all the way around except a 3 inch area and pulled it right side out and sewed then ironed it.

Following that, I placed the two back pieces on the front pattern piece and sewed the sides and then folded them back to have the top finished.

I then measured the skirt by measuring from the top down to the right length for my daughter with a measuring tape.  I used the soft fabric of the top for the under-skirt and then cut happy birthday tulle and tulle for the skirt.  i made the white tulle width three times the width length since I will gather it to make the skirt more “poofy.” I then gathered the tulle using the easy method of dental floss, on top of the soft under skirt. With this method, you use a large zigzag over the floss and then at the end you pull the floss out and it is gathered!

Next I decided to use the happy birthday tulle and sewed it on as well.  Then, I put the layers together and I put pattern facing pattern and sewed it all together.

I ended up sewing on a bead embellishments on ribbon in between the top and bottom.

 

Happy Sewing!

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Summer Bee Dress

Cecelia’s Summer Bee Dress

This lovely summer spaghetti strap dress was suppose to be made in time for my sister in laws baby shower in June.  However, I was unable to finish it due to my water breaking early and being hospitalized.  I finally finished it and love how it turned out!  I free handed the design and sizing.  I meant for it to end up as a 2t size, but as you can see it’s a bit big!  This works out great since its winter and not summertime!  She can wear it this upcoming summer.  I can’t wait for the warm spring and summer to come!  Bulbs and flowers emerging and gardening time, but let’s get back on track.

As always there is a youtube tutorial and this written one.  I do not have a pattern as a freehanded it and designed the pattern myself as I went.  I used one of my Cece’s dresses to size it and make part of the pattern to guess the sizing.

Unfortunately, a lot of the video tutorial was accidentally videotaped over with my baby boys arrival home (sorry more important anyways!).  So I videotaped again trying to explain the best I could.  If you have questions please let me know!  More great videos to come soon!

What you need:

  • Chose of fabric colors and types (I chose three colors
  • 1/4 inch elastic (for gathering of the top of back of the dress)
  • Bias tape (or you can make your own like I did)
  1.  First you want to cut out your fabric pieces.  I looked at another dress I have for my little one and based the main front and back piece by measuring and estimating the sizing.  Then I cut the bottom piece I needed which ended up being about 40inches long and 4 inches wide (for the ruffle on the bottom). I ended up added another color (black) on the two sides of the dress.  Then I also cut out fabric to make bias tape (here is a good tutorial on making bias tape if you’ve never made it before..BIAS TAPE TUTORIAL. )
  2. Take your strap (black piece) and sew it to the top piece and bottom piece.  Pattern piece to pattern piece (facing each other) sew the bottom to the strap
    then the top.
  3. I made my own bias tape by cutting and ironing the fabric.  Then you proceed to use it to line the top of the dress (sew it on!). Then sew up the armholes and long to tie…estimate how long you want the straps to be to tie behind the neck (longer the better!)
  4.  
  5. Take the back side and sew two black (or whatever color you choose) by sewing
    facing pattern sides together
  6. I decided to add a small piece of fabric above the black strap to make it higher .  If you want, sew and connect.  Then place from and back piece facing each other and sew to connect from and back.
  7. Add elastic to back piece if you want it ruched and tighter.
  8. The last part is the bottom ruffled part.
  9. Hem the bottom first about 1/8inch
  10. To gather your fabric put your machine on the longest thread setting make two
    straight lines (Do not reverse!). Roughly 1/4 and 1/8 inch away from the top.
    Leave long threads on the ends.
  11. Next you knot the bottom of the back side of the threads so you can gather, just the two in the back (not the front).
  12. Pull the bottom threads from the other end and slide the cloth along the threads toward your knot making small folds. When your cloth has been
    gathered the way you want it, knot the ends securely with each other.
  13. Sew pattern side to pattern side all the way around.  Then you can zig zag around (or you can zig zag before attaching (this prevents fraying).
  14. Then you are finished! Great Job!  Have fun! Post your pics!
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1st Birthday Ducky Theme!

As I searched the internet for ideas for my munchkins first birthday, I noticed a lack of imagination for the rubber ducky birthday theme!  So I have decided to share what I came up with in hopes of giving others ideas as well.

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My little Cecelia loves rubber duckies.  She has since she was introduced in the bathtub to them.  Now, besides just the rubber duckies, she loves everything ducky!  She crawls right over to any books that contain ducks; especially, the duck and goose series!  I even got her a large rubber duck down at the shore.

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So I didn’t want to go overboard on her first birthday since she won’t remember it, but…of course we had to have rubber ducks everywhere!

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First, I made Cece a 1st birthday dress. You can click here to see some of the details however right now I do not have a full tutorial. If you are interested in purchasing one you can private message me.  My Etsy site is upcoming.

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First I thought to myself, well if it is a rubber duck party, then I definitely need rubber ducks for favors!  So I searched the web for the cheapest, yet best rubber duckies for about 35 people.  I ended up going with an assortment of 2 inch rubber ducks from amazon.  There were some bad reviews that they were not a good assortment; however, I found them very varied in theme.

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Last minute, I decided to make birthday crowns!  This tutorial can show you how to make easy quick crowns!  Of course, if you have a large amount of kids coming you may want to just buy party hats or completely skip this.  I used scrap pieces to make the crowns and just did ribbon along the bottom that could be tied.  You of course can do buttons, Velcro, or if you know the head size, sew it all the way around.

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Next, of course I needed party decorations!  I didn’t want to spend 10 dollars for 8 fancy paper plates with cute ducks on them.  So, I made a trip to my dollar store and bought yellow napkins, plates, cups, and silverware.  They also had cute I’m one plates, so I bought a couple of those as well.  Since the weather is nice, we had lots of tables outside and I bought yellow tablecloths.

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As far as balloons, I ended up buying balloons on amazon, ones with little ducks on them and then two large Mylar duck balloons.  They did not carry these type at my local stores.  The only place around to fill the balloons was the dollar store.  Do you see a theme here?  **Note: it does cost more to have Mylar balloons filled, so if you are saying a buck or two you can skip the Mylar and go for the regular smaller balloons.

 balloons

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I also used the rubber duckies to decorate everywhere!  I had a couple mums and vases in the house and added little ducks to them!

IMG_2559 IMG_2560Food…of course this is key for a party.  I wanted to save some time but not spend too much money either.  So, I decided to order a couple small party trays and then do crock pot recipes.  I didn’t go crazy with the duck theme food since there weren’t a lot of kids coming to the party.  However, if you want to see some duck themed food check out pinterest for lots of ideas.  Yes, we did deviled eggs and some quacky snack mix that I used small duck cups for.  Cake. Originally I was thinking of making my own cake, there are tons of ideas on pinterest.  However, with more than 40 people coming, and cheap but tasty sheet cakes with a free smash cake included, I decided to save myself the stress and space in my fridge, and order a cake with a duck theme.  However, let me show you some of the ideas I picked up from pinterest. 

cake2 cake3Duck Birthday Ideas: click for more pinterest ideas.

I was GIVEN THE WRONG CAKE WITH NO SMASH CAKE when I went to pickup the cake two hours before the party!  I was given a mere 1/4 sheet cake (wrong size) with the wrong duck design on it, and NO smash cake!  Don’t panic I told myself as my mind reminded me I only ordered this a month in advance to make it was done right!  After several minutes of panic, the manager apologized and stated they could make my cake and smash cake in about two hours.  I agreed but would have to send someone else back to pick it up.  Lukily, my brother in law agreed to pick it up and got fifty percent off the cake.  Phew, added stress you don’t need!

I ended up addin some small ducks to the smash cake! Note: it was a HUGE SMASH CAKE!

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I also made duck shaped cookies with a duck cookie cutter!  And then I used yellow icing to make the number one of them!  Half were pumpkin sugar cookies and the other half regular sugar cookies

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Drinks. Duck punch of course!  There are a variety of recipes to make blue punch.  I ended up doing half blue hawiian punch, half 7up, and then putting in vanilla ice cream to make it look like bubbles!  You can clean rubber ducks up well and put them in, or freeze them in ice!  I also had a punch server that I put ice and ducks in the middle and then put water in it! 

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Play.
Since there were a handful or two of kids coming, I decided to buy a couple items and also set up items for the kids to play with.  Of course we had games such as bean bag toss, bacchi ball, redneck golf, and Frisbee setup for adults.

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I bought some duck beach balls off amazon.  They came in a 12 pack so I got them cheap enough and gave them away as favors too.

Birthday chalkboard!  I love this idea!  And it is so easy to make!  Now again, I needed to save myself some time with this project, but also not spend too much money.  My handwriting is awful, so making a chalkboard myself was out of the question.  I also wanted it on a poster board to have it as a keepsake.  So if you are into graphic design you can make your own up and have it printed at an office store.  However, I am not into graphic design so I investigated the options at etsy.  I ended up going with a 5.99 graphic for ducks and edited the sections myself with adobe.  I took it to staples to have it mounted on a poster board and enlarged.

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HOWEVER, **Note: the file was locked due to the seller having a password.  The staples I went to could not print it so I had to have it turned into a JPEG.  The seller offered to do it, but I didn’t want to wait, so I just changed it myself on a free online program.  Just type in change to JPEG and you can easily find a free site.  For these pre-made designs you cannot change the pictures or the design, only the words can be edited.  For mounting on a thick foam poster board and enlarging to 16×20, it cost me 16.99 online.  I am very pleased with the way it turned out and now it is displayed in her room as a great keepsake!IMG_0108 IMG_0154

You can of course buy a chalkboard and make your own.  You can even print out different fonts and trace them onto the board.  You can also buy a cheap graphic design program and make your own.  Again, for the price, and since it was last minute, it was easiest for me to order it.

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So that is it folks!  Although she won’t remember this, I have lots of pictures and we had lots of fun!

Hope you enjoyed the post and I hope it gave you some good ideas!  You can check out my pinterest site for more ideas!  Follow us on facebook too!

 

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1st birthday dress!

I wanted that special 1st birthday dress, but not that especially high price that comes with most of them!  So once again, I searched pinterest, etsy, and other sites to find ideas.  I ended up combining ideas, as well as making up my own, to design with the dress I created. The theme was rubber duckies for her party.  Therefore, I wanted to incorporate duckies as well as other birthday fabrics.  I went to the store and examined numerous fabrics, buying  a yard of my favorites!  The extra fabric I ended up using to create the crowns!

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I purchased the iron on birthday 1 and ducky from etsy.  The number is even personalized with her name!  I also bought the duck buttons from the store.  I used white hair bands that I cut to make the loop holes for the buttons on the top of the shoulders.

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So how did I make this dress?  Well that’s a secret! But I can give you some hints.  If you are truly interested in a dress like this you can private message me or come back and look for my future etsy link!

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The skirt of course took the longest because of the detail.  I added yellow ribbon in between the rows as well.

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Then I added the cute duck to the back of the dress.  Personally, this dress could be used as a 2 in 1 dress because the back is also so cute!  However, the 1 in the front personalized this as a 1st birthday dress.

 

IMG_2457Well check out the other tutorials, as well as the 1st birthday party theme page for more ideas! Feel free to share pictures of your little one’s first birthday dress!

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