Last but not least, baby girl. Mistral was so very excited to be a flower girl – she doesn’t really remember that she has done this before…. (and I made that dress too, though I guess I never blogged about it.) But yes, here’s the 2 year old hairless wonder girl in her frothy white frock. (I did NOT make any of tiny Sirocco’s clothes. Good job too as they were mostly destroyed later that evening in the bouncy castle…)
So, now that we have that bit of nostalgia out of the way. Pinterest inspo! Though I think we both agreed that the belt was a bit much, especially if she was going to carry a bouquet. (And seriously what is up with those shoes?)
I had some really wonderful double sided loose woven linen in ecru and pink in my stash for over a year that I just could not decide what to make with so when I heard the bride wanted a pinkish dress I knew just what to use. The clean lines on the inspiration photo made the pattern easy to choose too. Clearly this was a Made by Rae Geranium! That left the tutu skirt situation. My initial thought was just to add a couple of layers of tulle on top of the main fabric and sew it up as normal, but I was concerned about the bulk that would create, and how the loose woven linen would hold up. A detachable overskirt also has some practical advantages – while the complete look is quite formal, a simple light pink linen dress can definitely be worn more than once (and if I’m going to make these clothes, they are going to wear them!) So once more, we had Oliver+S come to the rescue. After several months of searching, I managed to secure a copy of the out of print Little Things to Sew book (serendipitous timing, as it was very shortly before taking on this project) which includes a really lovely tutu pattern – apron style, so no fussing with attaching tulle to elastics, and comes with a nice built in tie, extra long in this case, for making a beautiful “papillon” ( nœud papillon is French for a bow tie, literally a “butterfly bow” but “papillon” is also Mistral-speak for anything ever that is tied in any kind of bow).
The construction was a bit long, but definitely the most time consuming and nerve wracking bit was getting the layering order right to create the exact shade of pink I wanted… There are actually five colours of tulle in there which gives it a lovely depth especially when it’s moving around. I ended up basting by hand, because I felt more confident that way and it was a lovely quiet thing to do. Honestly hand basting is pretty fast and gives you so much more control over the end result, I highly recommend it.
Having already made the Geranium for Mistral, I was not worried about that so made the tutu first and then tried it on her with the old dress. The one in electric blue with polka dots and florals and things that I made from an old duvet colour, which she loves, but is really, clearly, NOT the one I was planning to put her in for the wedding. Right?
Classiest. Lady. But apparently something got lost in texting when I sent my poor future SIL this picture and she thought that this was the final look. The truth is, I had at this point decided that my life was clearly too easy, and that since I was going to be on holiday in Munich for a few weeks away from my sewing machine, I should bring some handwork. What better plan than to sneakily decide to do some beading on the bodice of the dress?! And obviously, I would keep it a surprise, so I couldn’t send any more dress updates… oops. Well, we all had a good laugh when she DID see the dress, and realized the mistake, though I was horribly embarrassed. Talk about a Pinterest fail!
Excuse the poor lighting, apparently I could only remember to take pictures after dark… but here’s what the beading looks like! I had a mid-sized bead as well as the large and small ones here, but neglected to check if they would fit on my needle, and sadly they did not, and I was away from home and didn’t want to try and find the right needle, so the effect is a bit more clunky than I had hoped, but not bad for a first attempt.
After that it was an easy but satisfying sew, no changes to the pattern other than using the extended bodice from the expansion and hand sewing the lining with a simple whipstitch rather than topstitching for a cleaner look. I think these photos from the first fitting in the whole outfit (albeit over her pjs) could be a visual definition of “delighted”.
And that was that! Leaving only the flower crown to do on the morning of the wedding. Mistral had fallen absolutely in love with this crown she saw on Pinterest and decided that she must have one for the wedding. This honestly made my life easy, because that would mean just washing her hair, letting it curl and tucking her half grown out bangs under the crown. We went with white florist tape and flowers all the way around, but otherwise just followed this tutorial. Mistral helped by plucking small bits of the flowers and I did the taping. Fun girly wedding morning craft time!
I think the effect was rather charming, don’t you?
Love,
Belligerence&Chocolate
(and one last glamour shot of that tutu for the road)
In case you missed it:
My dress
Chinook’s romper
Sirocco’s waistcoat and shorts
Belligerence & Chocolate 