And now for the girls

As promised, here's part 2 of the wedding sewing.  I sewed Oliver+S Fairy Tale Dresses for the three flower girls.  I was originally going to use a posh cotton/poly satin from Mood Fabrics, but in the end I decided to save some money and bought this stretch cotton sateen from Joann's instead.  I've used this fabric a few times before and I really like it.  It has such a satisfying heft, a lovely sheen, and an almost spongy hand.  It's a pleasure to sew and it works so nicely for a special occasion dress with a nice deep hand-stitched hem.

I bought the Fairy Tale pattern ages ago, and when I sat down to cut my pattern pieces, I was dismayed to see that I only had the smaller size range.  In the end, the size 4 ended up working just fine.  I actually ended up taking Natasha's dress in significantly, nearly to the width of a 2 (I was overzealous and it ended up a smidge tight on her), but the 4 worked fine for the other two, who are both size 6 in RTW.  I added something like six inches of length to the skirt but I kept the bodice length as is.  I like a slightly higher waist in little girls' dresses.

The dresses are fully lined in white cotton voile per the pattern instructions.

The only adjustment I made to the pattern was to the sash.  The bride wanted it to wrap all the way around the waist. So I sewed up the dresses and made the sashes separately.  

 The fabric is a synthetic satin from Mood, which was the only place I could find the right shade to match the bridesmaids' dresses (Sangria from David's Bridal). The sashes are all the same width as the pattern's ties, though for some reason it looks like Natasha's folded over while she was wearing it, making it seem thinner. I rushed the sashes at the side seams of the dress.  Our sewing fairy godmother made the thread sash carriers for me and posted them to save me some time.  

As the dresses were sleeveless, the girls needed something to wear over them while outside.  I intended to just buy RTW cardigans but couldn't find anything I liked.  Then I remembered that I had a large cut of white cotton/lycra knit in my stash, and I ended up sewing three shrugs from stash fabric using this pattern that I've made before.  The pattern only goes up to a size 4, but I figured it would be ok.  I did lengthen two of the shrugs about an inch after I'd sewed the first one.   They worked perfectly (in the below photo, my niece on the right is wearing the unlengthened shrug, and N on the left, with the weirdly thinner-looking sash, is in the lengthened version).

We all had a fantastic time at the wedding.  My brother is the baby of the family and his wife came into his life literally a few weeks before our mother passed away.  There were definitely tears thinking about her absence, but it was also a wonderful family time for all of us.

The kids, predictably, were the hits of the dance floor.

After awhile the shoes came off.

Then the tights followed suit.  "Too sweaty," apparently, when you're bustin' a move.