[totterwalker]

My daughter and niece are going to be flower girls in my brother’s wedding in September. I was all set to make them fairy tale dresses in some kind of nice fancy-ish fabric but then I went on to Pinterest and fell in love with this dress. My question: Do you think I can use the Fairy Tale View B and just use tulle for bottom skirt? Will that work? Or can I somehow combine it with the tutu pattern from the book? I don’t have to add the trim seen in this dress, I plan to just use ribbon. Any and all advice welcome and appreciated. Any other patterns you can recommend? Full disclosure: I’m not great at improv sewing but I thought there is enough time to at least try it.

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[with love Heidi]

I would be tempted to make the tutu and then the fairy tale with a very short skirt as the peplum (ruffle on the bottom of the skirt).
Here’s a tutorial for making a tulle circle skirt.http://www.cottonandcurls.com/2014/01/very-simple-tulle-skirt-tutorial/
I would probably line the skirt as well to prevent any scratchyness or see throughness.
I would also consider using a waistband, probably the badminton, for a more finished look, if that’s what you’re going for.
It will be lovely when done 🙂

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by with love Heidi.

[totterwalker]

Thanks so much, Heidi. Interestibg idea. I am going to spend some time this weekend looking over that pattern and coming up with a plan. I will let you know how it goes. Fingers crossed!

[Reeni]

I have made the fairytale dress with a circle skirt a few times, it is hands down one of dd’s favorite silhouettes. Basically, you want to draft a doughnut with the diameter of the center circle being the hip measurement/3 (or measure, then lay out the tape in a perfect circle.) Then measure outward from that how long you want the skirt to be, and that’s your outside circle. The inside circle needs to be the hip measurement and not the waist measurement so you will have enough to gather and so it won’t be hard to put on. Elastic is optional because it will be attached directly to the bodice, but a strip of twill tape or other stabilizer helps keep the layers manageable. HTH!

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Reeni.

[Lightning McStitch]

A tulle circle skirt is a genius idea as that gets around having to seam the tulle.
However, the Fairy Tale dress has a zipper that crosses the waist seam which would complicate things if you wanted the tulle on the outside. Maybe I’m being unambitious but I think an invisible zipper and layers of tulle will not go nicely together.
You might need to forgo some bodice fitting in order to get away with a short zipper and the ability to wriggle into it.
Doing the gathered peplum like frill, rather than a flat ribbon, would allow you to have an elasticised waistband and more on/off ease

[totterwalker]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I don’t think I have enough tulle to do a circle skirt and I can’t buy any more as I am in the country this week, nowhere near a fabric store. I was thinking about Heidi’s suggestion and wondering if I could make the skirt as called for but shorten the outer fabric like she suggested and somehow construct it as directed using tulle and a lining? That way, I won’t have to mess with the zipper. Thoughts?

[JWo]

I made two flower girl dresses 3 years ago with tulle over the top of the silk skirts. I used a pattern from another company but the fairytale dress could be easily modified to have the tulle over the top of the main skirt. I used an invisible zip in the back but can’t remember what I did with the tulle. I can have a look at my photos and the pattern when I am at home tonight if you would like more info. In hindsight I was probably a bit miserable with the underskirt and the tulle skirts could have had more fullness. However the bride and the flower girls’ mums were all pretty happy.
I have attached a photo of one of the dresses being worn for the first time just after it arrived in Aus. The girls had pink sashes around their waists on the day.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by JWo.

[JWo]

Let’s try that again…

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[totterwalker]

That looks great, JWo! Thanks for sharing. I am having the same issue with the skirt. I wonder if I should have used crinoline for first layer of tulle? Other than that – the fairy tale pattern worked well. Thank you all for your help!!! I am making my niece a matching skirt so I am open to suggestions to improve the fullness.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by totterwalker.

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[totterwalker]

Attaching pic

[with love Heidi]

Oh, wow! What a beautiful interpretation of the inspiration dress! If you want the super puffy look you might want to make a crinoline or pettiskirt to go underneath. Only if you have time because it’s beautiful as is 🙂

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by with love Heidi.

[totterwalker]

Thank you, Heidi! I am super happy with how it turned out. Need to shorten it a bit and hand see the sleeves but I have a bit of time. I think I will stick with the skirt as is:

[totterwalker]

Pic

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by totterwalker.

[totterwalker]

Oops. Having some trouble adding the photo. Try this link: http://pinterest.com/pin/A-ubcgAQgB4Ah6_PHG8AAAA/

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by totterwalker.