Tuesday, 3 February 2015

2015 Iron Craft Challenge - #2 Love is in the Air


The second Iron Craft challenge for 2015 was to make something for someone you love. The challenge was so open, and since most of my crafts are made for people I love, I could have made almost anything! But since a new busking dress was already on the cards for the little miss and dreaming about the design has been keeping me up at night, I figured that's what I'd make.

The little miss's last busking dress is getting ridiculously short on her, but with school starting next week I don't think she'll be doing much busking in the short term, so I wanted to make something that she would be able to wear as an everyday dress as well as busk in. And I wanted to make sure it had some growing room in it. This dress gave me the opportunity to try out a new crochet collar design and some Celtic knot applique - both of which might appear in some form on the next Irish dancing solo dress I make...

I usually draft my own patterns, but for this dress I used a vintage pattern I had laying around - Simplicity 9796 Girls Princess Seam Dress. Possibly my favourite thing about this pattern is that it's so old it comes in regular and 'chubby' sizes - lol, gotta love the 70's! I altered it by leaving off the sleeves, making the neckline higher, adding a crochet collar and Celtic knotted butterfly applique on the front, and by special request from the little miss I made a sash for the back. The collar was made using the Pan pattern by Krisstin Hrund. I attached it to the dress so that instead of doing up in the front, the open ends are secured at the zipper. It's my favourite collar I've made so far and super easy too!

 
















There is a lot of love in this dress... I love the little miss, and she loves anything Irish (especially anything Irish dancing), I loved the process of making this dress, and both the little miss & I love the finished product!