Christmas Dress

So for Christmas, I wanted a red dress. Not just for Christmas, but that was my deadline. And what dress did I want? This one:

 You may have seen it before. It's been on my list for a while now. Anyway, I used the same pattern I usually do for my lolita dresses (Butterick 6352), plus the bib and sleeves portions of the Simplicity Threads pattern 3684. I started out by cutting out the panels for the dress.

The fabric I used was just some regular old cotton, 45". This pattern, if you do it right, can be situated with two of the panels on each long, flat side of the fabric. I cut away from the waist to the bottom in a triangle shape for the flare that lolita skirts tend to have. As I've mentioned before, this old pattern is heavily modified, and not all of it is correct. I've got it cut right where I'd want my skirt to fall: about my knees. But because I'm adding two layer of ruffle, I measure how tall I want my ruffles to be, and I cut that off of the bottom.

I do, of course, make sure I cut in a rounded edge, since I forgot to do so when I initially cut out the pattern. Next I cut out the strips that will later become ruffles. When using my 45" fabric, I take my tape measure and mark in chalk three more or less even spaces, like so:

Since, folded in half, the width of this fabric is about 22", I usually mark just a little larger than the 7" and 14" points. I set these aside for later. And then I make the bib! Using Simplicity Threads 3684 bib portion of the pattern, I cut out a white bib and use white double-fold bias tape to make the horizontal line on both the front and back portions, then add ribbon and attach the front bib to the front of the dress (which is already sewn together at this point), and the back portions plus the zipper to the back of the dress.

And then I attempt to add the collar and sew the sides together so that I can try it on. It is at this point I now realize I made my first mistake: I did not take out any fabric from the back neckline of the dress to make room for the back portion of the bib. This royally screwed up the collar, so I improvised by taking in triangles at the side seams. Otherwise, it fits alright.

In the Threads pattern, there is a short, puffy sleeve and a long, button up sleeve. I took the long one, slimmed it down a little (I wasn't originally planning on making it button up - all of that would be fake), and figured out where the short sleeve one would have to be in order to make a full sleeve. So I made the puff sleeves, then attached the longer arm portion of the sleeve, and then attached that to the dress at the armholes.

Then, you add the ruffle. It's a long and tedious process, ruffling that much fabric, but it can be done! SO I attached it to the bottom, and then attached a second layer above it.

And this is what you end up with! But wait, there's more! I went out and got some button for the bib, and then made a bow out of the leftover fabric using this old pattern I received that was initially intended for hair bows, but used it anyway.

I know you can't tell here, but it's on a giant safety pin, because I couldn't find anything else before I wanted to wear it.
Aaaaand that's all there is to it.