almost mini boden

A month or two ago I was perusing the Boden site. No good reason to be there mind you but there I was and there this was.  It was love at first sight.  Well almost.  I didn't like the price tag one bit and I didn't love either color.  I mean the burgundy is pretty but it felt too much like a just Christmas dress and while the mustard may float some or your boats it would make Emily look like a flu victim.  I guess that could have been that but I also had the nagging feeling that I had seen a tutorial for something similar.  Then I remembered the Starboard Skirt from Simple Simon and Co. 

So with that as my jumping off point this is where I ended up. 

The bodice is based on a sleeveless a-line dress.  I just squared it off and cut it short.  Then I cut a single strip for the bow band.  The bow itself is a bigger version of this bow tie without the padding.

The fabric is velvetien that was in my mother's stash.  I have no idea how much she bought or for what purpose but there is still a lot more.  The shirt is the peasant top from Little Girls Big Style made from I think City Weekend fabric though I'm not sure if that's the right line.  I know its from the Oliver and S line and it is so very soft.  It reminds me of they way Lightening Bugs and Other Mysteries felt just if you were wondering.

As for the skirt part I did make a few changes.  I based my measurements on the bottom of the bodice.  I also made my pleat a bit bigger and decided to sew about thee inches down to hold it in place.  I wanted it to stay closed for a bit on the skirt below the bow.

Here you can see it all flattened out and then I sewed it flat just inside the seam allowance so it wouldn't get wonky when I attached it to the bodice.  The inspiration dress had little tucks in the back skirt but I decided to do gentle gathers for Emily's dress instead. 

I hope you like it. I'm so glad I found the Simple Simon tutorial as a jumping point. I know my directions are not the best but I figured something was better then nothing. Hopefully, one day I will learn to make really nice precise tutorials. Until then I do enjoy rambling.

Stupid lesson learned during this project: You cannot just cut off the top of an invisible zipper and expect the facing to keep the zipper pull from coming off.  This lead to  having to ripe out a broken zipper and install a new one.  In this case the new one is a slightly exposed and oh so trendy regular zipper.   I think I'm going to add this as a new feature.  Perhaps some of you will learn from my mistakes and I but most of you will get a good laugh from them.