Improvisational Pleating Contest Entry

Alternatively titled: the Pleated Princess.

Whenever I try to do a task in addition to my day job as a mother the whole house seems to fall apart.  No cleaning or cooking gets done and the B watches a lot of TV.  A whole lot of TV.  The key skill here is multi-tasking, and I get a big fat F.  If I was being reviewed at work it would be the scary N for needs improvement and I would probably be put on probation.  Good thing there's job security in my current gig, and I don't get paid anyway.  Curious about what I have been working on?  Even if you are not interested, please don't leave until you have voted for me.  Here it is, my entry into Straight Grains improvisational pleating contest!

Here are photos of the dress before I added the buttons.  I think I like the dress better with buttons.

This is the bodice of the dress with my improvised pleats.

I started the design process by trying to find some inspiration.

I found a lovely dress but I wasn't excited about the volume of the sleeves and the ruffles down the front.  My little lady is a bit messy so ruffles are just too hard to clean.  So I thought that the design was perfect for tweaking.  I could easily replace the ruffles with a pleated panel.

I wanted the dress to be more form fitting and shorter.  The model had some strong opinions to the contrary.

I want it to be long!

This was her reaction when I cut the muslin "prototype" short.  And this is what happened when I made it more narrow.

No, you can't take a photo to see how it looks. 

Since she is the one that decides if she wants to wear a dress, I had to cave.  Have you ever tried to get clothes on a toddler who didn't want to get dressed?

I'm on the go, there is fun to be had!

Thanks for checking out my dress.  Now please go vote for me HERE!.