McCall's M5692 balloon dress

This was Primrose's birthday dress. I hadn't intended to make the balloon view, but with one thing and another, that's what I ended up making. I couldn't figure out how to put the zipper in securely without the lining. I definitely felt that the instructions were inadequate, but then I always feel like instructions are inadequate. Then I go off and wing it and make it the way I think it should be done. Sometimes it works out, sometimes I realize halfway through what the instructions meant. This was my first real zipper. Separated zippers don't count, they're too easy. I mucked the zipper up a bit, re-did it, and mucked it up less the second time around. Then, being the crafty monkey that I am, I called it good and left it along.

I thought at the beginning that this dress was a bit dark. Prim likes it though, and popular response has been very positive. I love the owl fabric. Without the ballooning the skirt was plenty long. With it, well, when she bends over you can see the waistband of her pants. Since she's 3 I imagine that we'll be seeing quite a bit of her waistbands. I made size 3. It ended up loose in the top and a bit shorter than I would have liked. I'll eventually end up taking apart the balloon skirt seam and letting the extra length down so that we can get some additional wear out of it.

This was all made of corduroy from Joann's, bought new (on sale though).