Having just given Aytan the quilt, I had to make something for Shira. To be fair, she gets a lot of handmade dresses from me. I could make some more shirts for Aytan, but that can wait.
Of course I already have a collection of children’s patterns, mainly little girl clothes. What I like about this is the semi circle skirt. It flows differently from a gathered skirt, I like it on myself and I like it on little girls. I collected my materials, yes, this fabric is Liberty of London that I bought at Pearl Soho Orange County, CA. It was no cheaper there than other places, but I think it may have been the bolt end so I got a break on the price. Liberty has wised up to us quilters, this is from their quilting line.
I do not like the facings for the neckline and armholes that home sewing patterns have you do. I either line the bodice, or use bias binding. It can be either decorative on the outside or pulled inside and top stitched. In order to do that I needed to remove the seam allowance from the fabric. This time I am using fold-over elastic for that purpose.
It was easy and worked well, next time I may stretch it a little more so I don’t get that wavy look. I didn’t have lime green thread, but I think the top stitching in the aqua works well.
Exposed zipper are still very popular. I’ve seen zippers that are so decorative, they are made to be installed this way. I feel this upgrades the dress from pretty – to pretty stylish.
That wasn’t enough for me, I had to do more. Lately I’ve been playing with EPP, English Paper piecing. I will have to write a whole post about that. Here is the wonderful Fisker paper cutter and the resulting hexagon flower.
Using the same aqua thread to attach to the dress. This time I ‘quilted’ each hexie. 
At the age of 5 I was taught how to cross stitch by a wonderful German woman. She told me that the back of the work must be as neat and clean as the front. I try and do that with everything I make. Having a serger makes this very easy when sewing.
The dress looks very nice on a hanger, but ten times better on an adorable model. I had given her the dress the night before, of course she wore it then and demanded to wear it again – WIN!
Looking good from the back.
One more, just because she is so cute and models the dress so well.