Skip to main content

Ball Gown for Monkey Pants


So, the past year, I got Monkey Pants to take ballroom dance lessons. What!?!?  Yes, I did. Miracle of miracles. And, she actually likes it. Last night was the dance studio end of year gala. Initially, I thought, oh good, she can just wear one of the couple of dresses I've bought her that she never gets to wear anywhere. Then, of course, we thought, OK, I thought -why not go all out and get her a floor length gown. So I searched on the internet and even went to a couple of stores. I did find some really pretty "pageant" dressed online but it was too late to order. And, I found absolutely nothing locally.

Midweek, I went to the fabric store and picked out some fabric. I rifled through the pattern books and found NOTHING.  Why! Why are there never any patterns for what I want to make when I want to make it. Next year, I bet there'll be tons of little girls ball gowns. I just know it.  So I was forced to do what I never like to do and figure it out on my own.  I ended up splicing two patterns together from what I had, McCalls 5570 which I used to make her a flower girl dress when she was three.  Problem was, the pattern only goes up to a size 5 and Monkey Pants is now ten. I used that for the skirt and petty skirt parts. And I used the  Burda 9/2012 #152 Cap Sleeve Dress for the bodice, which is also a little girl pattern but Monkey Pants has a tiny torso with wide shoulders so I had already enlarged and modified that the last time I used it on an the landscape dress.


Of course, I meant to give myself at least three days to do this, but no, it never works out like that so I started it Thursday night and finished it Friday evening with an hour to spare before the Gala, all the while thinking, why did I dump so much money on a dress I can't even finish and I don't have a real pattern for? What is wrong with me?! The boys are probably upstairs eating brown sugar out of the pantry with a spoon. And why isn't the stupid wi-fi working so I can listen to Pandora and not feel like I'm sewing in prison!

Then I watched this video.




Then I just did it.


Since I was going off the yardage for the underskirt of a size 5, It wasn't really puffy enough for this heavier ruffled fabric so I had her wear the petty skirt I made for the 50's skirt under there too. This is a two petty skirt dress.  The tule for the petty skirt was fuscia. It's pretty exciting but you can't really see it so you'll have to take my word for it. The shoes were also very princess-y, but had no time to get a picture as we were literally running out the door here because Mr. I-don't-know-where-my-head-is-most-of-the-time couldn't find his black dress socks THAT HE WEARS FOR BALLROOM ALL OF THE TIME. Can you tell I'm no longer the patient, happy-go-lucky mom I used to be. Wait, I was never that mom.


Also, James Bond granted us a special appearance there on the right.

------------------------
[I've noticed, my photos are ultra saturated in color when I upload them to Blogger. Don't know what the deal is but no, I'm not crazy, and I'm not doing this on purpose].
Labels:

Comments

  1. TeresaJune 21, 2015 at 8:41 PM

    Wow...beautifully done! I have to laugh each time I read your posts....we are so similar. Love the Shia video. I'll need to revisit that before my next sewing project!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Tinkerbell Cake

I made something! A friend of a friend ..... needed a cake made for her daughter's fourth birthday. I came up with a few ideas, trying to keep them uncomplicated. She opted for the more traditional nine inch round cake with decorations. I thought it would be simple enough, but it always ends up taking me way longer than I anticipate. I wish I could go to a professional cake decorating class by Debbie Brown or Rebecca Sutterby so I could learn some techniques like how to get things to stay glued on. I could never be a cake decorator -my time to money ratio is kind of ridiculous. But here it is. Monkey Pants now wants a Tinkerbell cake for her next birthday too, of course. I need to wake up early tomorrow to make sure she's not eating the mushrooms off of it. (It's happened before).
18 comments
Read more

Emmeline Apron 2

Just got done with this one. Another Emmeline Apron for a Christmas gift. I wanted to try something different with my choice of fabrics this time, although not too different since they are still Amy Butler prints. I chose some darker blue fabrics from the Daisy Chain (Aquatic) line that I wouldn't normally be drawn too. But I'm glad I did. I really like the result. This time, I did a few things a bit differently. One thing about the pattern I'm not fond of is the wordy, yet poor instructions on how to place the waist straps onto the sides of the apron at the right angle. I really don't know why the correct angle isn't just printed on the pattern. So to minimize the trial and error approach encouraged in the pattern instructions, [TIP:] I laid out the fabric and the strap as it would appear once constructed and simply marked a line on the strap corresponding to the angle of the apron. Then, I flipped both apron and strap layers over together; lined up the strap wit...
19 comments
Read more

Face painting

For my daughter's upcoming birthday party, I decided I might try my hand at face painting. I collected some photos from the internet I liked, check out a book at the library, and bought some face paints at the party store. The face paints are not very cheap but cheaper than hiring a face painter, right. Here's a couple of the faces I've tried so far. Now if I can only get my face painting time down to ten minutes from twenty minutes a face for the party. I think I may have to enlist a volunteer to help out too. The painting part is actually much easier than it would seem. The only thing that makes it challenging is that the canvas is constantly moving around (at least my canvas). It's not too hard to wash off, but the black takes a bit more scrubbing as the paint is grease or oil based. It makes for a fun activity especially as it gets too cold to go outside. My 3-year old thought it was "amazing" when she looked in the mirror. I even talked my husband i...
4 comments
Read more