A Special Dress

At the beginning of the year, I began my search

for the perfect baptism dress for my daughter. After

scrolling through pages and pages of frilly, over the

top dresses online, and having no luck at the mall, I

finally stumbled upon the Crewcuts site and found

quite a few dresses that were a bit more age appropriate

and less "wedding-dress from the 80's" looking. The only

problem was that I wasn't about to fork out the $150+ it would

cost to get one of their dresses for my 8 year old.

This is the one I was drooling over. The simple design, paired with

the dainty, slightly imperfect ruffles had me at hello.

I was feeling adventurous, even though I have very little experience

working with "fancy" fabric. I stopped at the fabric store and

walked out with a yard and a half of white douponi silk for $15 and not

a clue what I was going to do.

I used one of my go-to vintage patterns for the main shaping, the sleeves, and

sizing. After cutting out the front bodice, I eyeballed a line a couple of

inches below the armholes and cut straight across. This piece now became

my template for the placing of the ruffles. I cut five strips of varying sizes and

just started gathering. (FYI, douponi silk gathers on the grain, so your strips

must be cut lengthwise along the selvedge) I found this out the hard way.

Other than a few stressful moments with the zipper and more than a

few problems with the lining....also a first.....I was happy

with the results. When it was complete, I took it to my

dry cleaner and he steamed it for me for a few dollars. I

didn't even want to mess with trying to press it and he

really gave it the finished look that I wanted.

So, here it is. A genuine Crewcuts knock-off dress.

Possibly the first of many......

And, of course we had to accessorize!