Feliz fun

I have latched onto this book called "Sewing Clothes Kids Love" that my mom gave me over a year ago.  I made some really fun twirly skirts from this book for my oldest daughter and some other sweet little girls in my life

 and they were all big hits.

Then, I wanted to push my skills a little bit and try something new so I picked the Feliz Party Dress (how fun is that pattern name???) from the book to tackle.

"The Feliz dress is a two-layer dress.  The full skirted underdress is topped with a shorter, pinafore-style overdress that's open in the back.  An elasticized panel at the center back provides comfort and room to grow and ties cinch the raised waist for a custom fit. (Sewing Clothes Kids Love, 2010)"

Feliz front

What makes this dress (and all of the clothes made in this book) fun to sew are the endless embellishing options.  I used rickrack, ruching, ribbon and pom pom fringe on this dress and I could have done more.

Feliz back

 Comments on the pattern:

1. The pattern runs a little big so make sure you measure your child and use those measurements to gauge what pattern size to use.  I am a lazy sewer and skipped this step.  This dress will probably fit my daughter for three years or more (wowzers!)
2. This dress has a LOT of fabric so keep that in mind when you are using scraps or buying new fabric.  For a 3T-4T dress, I used almost 3 yards of fabric.
3. Embellishments can be very expensive so try using up those 40% off coupons at JoAnns, Hancocks, Michaels, etc and stockpile ribbon, pom pom fringe, rick rack, etc.  You can also look online.
4. Make sure your ribbon, rickrack, etc is long enough to go all the way around the part of the dress that you are applying the embellishment to before you start sewing.  Again, I can be a lazy sewer and just jump into sewing it on to the dress.  This almost became a problem on the bottom of the overdress since it is so wide.  Think ahead and measure (unlike me!), especially if you are using leftover embellishments from another project.