Monday, March 30, 2009

It is an Easter Miracle!

Katie Anne's Easter dress is finished!

Whew! What a relief! While I was working on it at 4:30 am this morning (no, not a typo), I pondered for a moment ... only a moment ... is this worth it?

Why did I have to work on this dress in the wee hours, you ask? Good question. I made a sad, but quite logical, planning error. I mistakenly thought - "Easter dress... hmm, I won't need that until Easter. So, I can totally forget about this project until after Katie Anne's birthday. Then, I'll have the whole week of Spring Break to work on it."

Wrong.

I got a call last Tuesday, when the dress you see here ...
was still two long pieces of fabric straight off the bolt, to tell me that I'd almost missed the Easter Bunny pictures at Tonsmeire this year. Did I want to make an appointment? Absolutely. Guess when the last day for pictures was? That's right... today. So, I said, "Give me the last appointment time on the last day." The deadline was set - Monday at 4:45 pm.

The bad thing was that we had lots of things planned to do already, so I couldn't just sew like a mad person for the five days in between the phone call and the picture time. So, I had to sew late at night or early in the mornings these last few days.

This was a very complicated project, without a doubt the most difficult I've ever sewn. The bloomers were nice and easy, but that blue bottom dress (which is a full dress, with a pleated skirt, heirloom stitching, four buttons in back, and a horribly confusing collar that I had to pick out once and start over) - it was so tough! The pinafore was not too bad, but in the middle of the night, even relatively easy projects become increasingly complicated.

I loved trying something challenging, and I do think the whole look turned out great. She looked just precious today at Tonsmeire's with the white baby bunny. The best part is that Katie Anne loves the dresses! When she woke up this morning, she saw them hanging in the doorway and clapped her little hands together. She cried to wear them to school this morning. But, I'm going to take a little break before I try something that complicated again.

Here are some more detailed pictures of the dress. Tune in later for the professional pictures of her in the outfit!


Front
Close up of front
Back

8 comments:

Jason, Erin, Ella, and Colin said...

So beautiful!! I can't wait to see the bunny pics!

cindy glawson said...

The dress turned out beautifully and very professionally done. I adore it and so does Katie Anne. All the hours of work really paid off!

Jillian said...

So cute! i can't wait to see the pics and update the one in our living room!

Carrie Beth said...

You did a great job and I can't get over the fact that you stayed up all night doing it. :-) She looks adorable in it.

Pat said...

Congrats Katie! Beautiful dress! Good job!

Trisha Jones said...

Katie, this is beautiful. Congrats on a job very well done! Katie Anne looks professionally styled from head to bare toe! I must say, the first part I noticed - other than the entire ensemble's brilliance - were the little lace bloomers peeking out from under the dress, so they were a sweet touch. And the second thing I noticed was the collar, so believe me, it did not go unnoticed. I love the whole thing and cannot wait to see the professional pictures!

The Dillards said...

You need to start selling these things along with your purses!

Vanessa said...

It looks great! She'll be the cutest little bunny lover that Louis T. photographs this year!