Minnie Mouse Dress

My daughter saw a child wearing a Minnie Mouse dress at the library and couldn't stop talking about it.  I don't think she knew such a thing existed and now that she knew, she really wanted one.

I informed her that we actually have one at home that belongs to her sister.

Once at home, it was clear that the dress my older daughter had worn at age six would be much too big.  I offered to look around at my fabric stash.  I knew I had some leftover red with white polka dots from other Disney inspired projects, I just wasn't sure how much.

Small amount of red with big polka dots and small amounts of red with small polka dots were all I found.  I wasn't sure what we could make.  The girl at the library's dress had a red polka dot skirt with a black bodice and white tulle sleeves and trim.  My older daughter's has a red bodice, red polka dot sleeves and skirt.  Fortunately I did have plenty of both red and black stretch crushed velour.

While I was taking inventory of all the scraps, my daughter decided on a red bodice with the larger polka dot print.

This was a special challenge.  I was able to get just enough fullness for a skirt out of three separate scraps pieced together.  The length of the skirt was determined by the material available.  For the sleeves, I wasn't sure I could find enough at all.  But after piecing two pieces for each sleeve, I hoped I had enough for a sleeve.  Also, the width was determined by the available pieces.

I used an existing dress as a pattern for the bodice and everything else was just using the fabric available.  Most of the dress was put together after my daughter took a nap.  This is good and not so good.  I finished the dress while she was sleeping, but then realized that the bodice was much too big and the sleeves needed help too.  I ended up changing things a bit, adding elastic to the sleeves and taking in the bodice.