Sewing Cate's Easter Dress

I've mentioned before that my mom sewed many of my clothes when I was little and she sewed every Christmas and Easter dress I wore until I was in high school.  I suspect my Grandma sewed Mom's Easter and Christmas dresses, too.  So, there's a little self-imposed pressure for me to do the same.  So far, I haven't been on the ball with the Christmas dresses, but I sewed last year's Easter dress and right now I'm working on this year's Easter dress.


I'm using Simplicity 2629 which is a vintage reproduction.  I'm using a quilting weight cotton fabric. I'm not sure how to categorize the print, but the pink, green, and orange spots remind of jelly beans, making it a good choice for an Easter dress.  To say that I like this pattern would be an understatement--three out of the four dresses I've made for Cate are from this pattern!  The first was her coming home dress, the second was last year's Easter dress and the third is this year's Easter dress.  The design is fairly simple, but I've managed to make each dress unique.  This time, I am making the shorter version of the dress with the following changes:

• No lace at the collar or sleeves
• Self-fabric ruffle at the bottom
• Extend the tucks to the waistline
• Sew a ribbon at the waistline
• Snaps on the back instead of buttons (have done this in the previous versions, too)

So far, I have the dress cut out, the ruffle pieces sewn together, gathering stitches sewn on the ruffle and sleeve caps, the casing for the elastic on the sleeves sewn, and I've started hemming the ruffle by hand.  I'm kinda skipping all over the place in the construction right now because I am avoiding sewing the tucks and I'm doing the hand sewing while watching TV.  Here's my sewing schedule for the week:

• Wed.:  Extend tuck markings to waistline, sew tucks, sew placket on back of dress, purchase and wash grosgrain ribbon for waistline
• Thurs.:  Insert elastic into sleeves, sew shoulder seams, insert sleeves, sew side seams, finish seams, make bias tape for neckline, try on Cate to make sure it all fits right!
• Fri.:  Attach ribbon to waistline, finish ruffle hem, finish neckline
• Sat.:  Attach ruffle, sew on snaps in back
• Sun.:  Wear to Easter Mass, take lots of pics!