SEWN: A VERY RAINBOW CHRISTMAS DRESS

Never work with children or small animals. I get it, I truly do.

This child never stands still or stops talking... she's talking above. Good lord, this was even after having to bribe her to model with the promise of a forbidden candy cane. Oh how the mighty fall when it comes to children. We truly aren't boss, you know. It's impossible.

Back to the dress. This is my fifth Xmas dress for the very lovely (if infuriating) Miss M. I'm liking it, and Miss M is ecstatic, but it's not the triumph of last year. Oh boy, how grown up she looks this year!

I was really pleased to use one of my vintage pattern finds for this dress, before she outgrew its one size!

Vintage Butterick 4983, View C. Isn't that illustration adorable?? It totally sucked me in... those pigtails, those bows, that cute floral. So much cuteness.

It's been a very rainbow year in the SewJillian household. Rainbows in every drawing, rainbows in every book. It went without saying that this year's dress would feature "rainbows". But I was down with that when it came to this fabric. Geo Rainbow. So. Much. Awesomeness.

Oh and stars, there had to be stars. Stars and rainbows apparently go hand in hand. Golden stars around the hem it was.

I thought I was all embellished out (I don't do embellishment), but then Miss M remembered the Daiso zips. I was all for sticking in a red one (very Xmasy), but it was pink or nothing. As I said: any illusions of being boss are completely thrown out in the face of a 4 year old's egocentric desires.

So we did pink.

And with a zipper as gorgeous as that I did an extreme exposed zip. I actually love how it turned out. I thought about enclosing the base of the zip in some dress fabric, but I really like the slightly industrial look of it as is.

I had a significant problem with design ease in this one. I tried the dress on Miss M before inserting the zipper or attaching the facings. It seemed quite tight around the chest, so I reduced the seam allowance to 1cm (from 1.5) and away I went. Entirely finished the dress and realised it was a sack of the most epic proportions, huge in every way. I ended up having to detach the armhole facings at the side seams (understitching and all!!!!) and take it in just over an inch each side and re-attach. Still seems a little broad across the shoulders, but it's much better.

And this little one is mucho pleased. And still ridiculously gorgeous. Look at that face...