My Easter Dress

Oh my goodness… do you know how hard it has been to have this dress hang in my closet for three weeks and not be able to show it to you? But I made it through the wait, and my dress made its debut on Kiki Creates’ All About Easter event on Friday.

Before I made the dress I asked for your help in choosing the color. I love what you all voted in!

Mint Jule

I really wanted the dress to turn out beautifully. Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Growing up, I loved waking up to an Easter basket full of goodies and surprises, church was always special and the afternoon was spent with friends and family. And we can’t forget the dresses… oh the dresses! I always had something special to wear, and many years my mom made it for me. The tradition has carried on, and even as an adult, I have to wear something extra nice on Easter. Kiki’s event was the perfect motivation to make a dress for myself!

I was going to do a tutorial for you. The fabric was great—it’s light and flowy without any silkiness or shine to it, so it was great to work with. My concept on the other hand… let’s just say this was another “Third Time’s a Charm” project for me.

The bodice was inspired by this Mod Cloth dress

And then I liked the waist band and skirt from this one

I just knew I’d have to work it a little differently since my dress wouldn’t be made of a jersey knit. The bodice came together exactly how I hoped it would, but the skirt was a different story. And this was where the possibility of a tutorial ended. The first attempt looked like a bridesmaid dress from the early 90’s—no thank you! The second attempt was exactly what I wanted (I just did a simple circle skirt style), but the band at the middle was too wide and made the dress frumpy. Finally, at 1:45 in the morning, I found just the right look!

The bodice is a fully lined wrap style with a zipper in the back. There are two layers of ruffles that trim the top layer.

The final waist band was just folded in half and then sewn back together. Easter Sunday is my biggest work day of the year—I lead the Children’s Ministries at my church. We’ll probably see about 500 kids this year which means I will be BUSY! I need a dress I can move around easily in and don’t need to wear a cardigan with, so I added soft fluttery sleeves.

(I feel like the tilt of my head in this one looks a little Stepford Wives???)

And half the fun with a pretty dress is accessorizing! I added a rosette headband from my Etsy Shop, pearl earrings and necklace my dad bought for me in China, a light pink beads bracelet and…

Raspberry pink shoes! A bright pop of color was too much fun! (Can we get real here for a moment? As much as I would LOVE to wear these shoes on Easter, I’ll be on my feet from 7 am until 1 pm. I’m going to need a little comfort. I later found some super cute flats at Target that will look great. They’re featured in this post.)

Now I can’t wait for Easter! It’ll be so much fun seeing all the pretty dresses and handsome clothes the little kids will be wearing, and I’ll love knowing I’m dressed up in something special too.

This post has been brought to you by

Take a moment to stop by and check out all of her BEAUTIFUL merchandise!

And, one last thing! Please visit the wonderful link up parties I’ll be joining in on. Their buttons are in my right sidebar or on my Link Up Parties page!

Including Sew Cute Tuesady
 Make it Wear It