Easter Dresses

When I realized I needed to get going on Easter sewing, I remembered a group of fabrics that I had intended to make something out of last summer.

But I couldn't remember what I had planned for them!

The top 2 fabrics I had purchased the same time that I bought fabric to sew last year's Easter dresses.  The middle 3 were remnants I had gotten at the same time as the remnants that went into last year's Easter dresses.  The bottom 2 fabrics were ones I had bought for other projects that didn't end up taking as much as I had purchased.

I played around with the fabrics and came up with this arrangement.  Finally, something to go on!  

Sarah ended up wanting a lighter blue not pictured (which I had left over from curtains for her baby nursery) for her bodice, so I used the purple for my bodice.  I used the same bodice from the pattern I used for last year's dresses, only moving the girls up a size.  I added 4" to the bottom of my bodice and 1" to the front neckline.  

Generally, I measured the bottom of the bodice and multiplied by 1.3 to get the length of the next tier. And then multiplied the length of that tier by 1.3 for the next tier, and so on.... Emily's tiers were 6" wide (before seams), Sarah's were 7", and mine were 9".  With the floral/butterfly print, I only had a piece that was 21" tall, so I just divided it into 3rds.  So mine was narrower than my other ones and Emily's was wider.  I would have made her's the usual 6", but I needed to use the end of her strip to add length to my strip.   I used 1/4" seams to sew the tiers together.  Make sure to include all of the selvedge in the seam!

Emily's tiers were: 33", 43" (1 width of fabric), and 56"
Sarah's tiers were:  36", 47", and 61"
My tiers were: 50", 65", and 86" (2 widths of the fabric)

When the strip needed to be longer than the width of the fabric, I cut one strip all the way across and then sewed it to the corner edge of the rest of the fabric (so the rest of the fabric could be one piece).

Then I laid it out flat and measured the right length.

I folded the other end of the strip back onto itself matching the tops and lining up the end with the pin marking the length I needed.

Then I cut along the edge of the top strip.

I color coded the strips with pins to keep them straight!  Some of the tiers were easy because only one of us had that color, but I didn't want to mess up the others!

I followed the pattern instructions for the bodice parts and then I took the top tier and gathered it onto the bottom of the bodice.

I also gathered the last tier to the middle tier

Once I sewed those seams, I gathered the bottom of the skirt to the bodice part and sewed them.

Rolled hems.

Pinned the top for elastic casing.

Yay!  All finished 

The boys still fit their shirts from last year, so I saved myself some work and will have them wear last year's shirts.