Pink Sherbet Dress

Last week I made a Regency dress for Reptar to wear to Garden Week at Bacon's Castle on Saturday.  I used the Kannik's Korner Girl's Frock pattern, and it went together so quickly and easily!  I will definitely be making more of these dresses.  I made it in three evenings, hand-sewing while watching TV, plus one afternoon naptime.  (Having a toddler around makes handwork nearly impossible when she's awake.)

I didn't take any photos while I was working on it, mainly because I followed the instructions to the letter (a rare thing for me) so there was no need to document what I did.  I can highly recommend this pattern - even to a beginner - because all of the hand-stitches are explained with diagrams, and it's really very simple construction.

I liked this feature at the sides of an inverted box-pleat to bring in extra width at the waist.  Also, it gave an easy place to line up the sleeve seam.

Here is the back of the dress, showing the drawstrings at the neck and waist:

The pattern called for 1/4" tape to create the drawstring casing at the waist:

I had never made such a narrow casing before, but I love the look it gives!

The top drawstring is created by the neckline binding:

The back neck edge is gathered into this binding, so there is less excess to take up with the drawstring.  I liked this feature, too.

I made a size 4 for Reptar, so she can continue to grow into it.  This made the skirt much too long for her right now, but fortunately there is a period-correct fix for this - tucks!

I put one 1" tuck into the skirt, three inches up from the hem.  I should have done a second one, because this made the skirt *just* short enough for her to walk without tripping, but it was 1:30 AM by this time and I was very tired.  It really was fine for walking around, but stairs proved to be an issue and she tore out some of the (very big) stitches in front.

Luckily the fabric was not damaged, and I was able to re-stitch it hastily while she was still wearing it.

The only (minor) issue with making this dress is that the fabric had a small fade mark along the fold, which unfortunately I couldn't avoid because of the body of the dress being one big piece cut on the fold.  So it ended up right down the center front of the dress:

But when she's wearing it, it's really not noticeable.

I named it the Pink Sherbet Dress, because the fabric really reminds me of the color and texture of raspberry sherbet.  Which I'm now craving.  :p

To make up for not getting any in-progress photos, I took - no exaggeration - 158 photos of her in the dress at the event!  I am not posting all of them here, but this is a selection of my favorites:

There will be more photos when I post about the Garden Week event, so stay tuned!