I did it

Despite my lack of planning.





Despite my entirely disastrous-looking sewing room.





Despite my lack of time.

I got it finished.





And she loves it.

There was a lot of dancing in her dress this morning, twirling in her gathered skirt, holding it out to enjoy it.  And The Recruiter and I were particularly glad to have her beautifully decked out without resorting to pink.  Don't get me wrong: I like pink a lot, but why not embrace chartreuse and turquoise with beautiful rich brown?

The details:

• fabrics: a chartreuse tree-print quilting cotton and a brown with turquoise polka dot quilting cotton
• made from The Party Dress tutorial with the following adaptations:
  - I skipped the sash
  - instead of the contrast band at the hem, I knife pleated the polka-dot print fabric and top-stitched it to a 2" deep hem around the skirt

I also sewed a matching fascinator, because who doesn't love a fascinator, right? Here's how:

1. Cut out approximately 20 circles (I used the chartreuse cotton used for the dress). I used a shot glass for a toddler-sized headband. I used all the same fabric, but complimentary or contrasting fabrics, or using various sizes of circles would be cool, too.
   
2. Using your circle fabric, cut out two ovals approximately 5 inches long. Sew them, right sides together, along the two long edges, leaving the ends open. Notch, turn, tuck in the open ends and press.
   
3. Take an elastic headband (I used one from the drugstore, but using a piece of heavy round elastic from the fabric store would be just the same) and cut it. Insert it into one end of the fabric oval base and stitch back and forth to anchor it well. Wrap it around the head that will be wearing it, trim the elastic to length and repeat on the other end of the oval.
   
4. Take your circles and make five stacks. Make sure the circles aren’t perfectly lined up as you stack them: you want to see the circles poking out from beneath one another. Stitch your stacks to the oval base using a mid-width zigzag set to a length of almost zero (you’re creating satin stitch dots in the centre of each circle). Arrange the stacks so that they crowd one another and won’t lay flat: this creates a flowery, three-dimensional effect. Add the stacks one at a time, arranging them in such a way that they cover as much – or all – of the oval as possible.