Celestial Beauty Dress

I signed up for The Monthly Stitch’s December G33k Out Challenge at the 11th hour. (Seriously, I got my approval on January 1st.) Being queen of my own little nerd-herd, I knew I had to meet this challenge.

I created this dress as a Christmas gift for my 16-year-old stepdaughter and didn't even think about the fact that it fit this challenge until I was going through my fabric, looking for something geeky and came across the scraps of celestial cotton I picked up for her dress. Challenge already met? Sweet!

I picked up this cotton at Walmart. Yeah, I know, not the best for quality fabric, but we were there for something else when she pointed out how much she loved the fabric. She just pulled it off the rack, looked at me and said, “ I would love a dress made out of this.” Then she plopped it back on the rack. She’s very subtle like that.

Since the fabric didn't cost much, I made sure to buy a little extra so I had plenty to use as a bodice lining. I used my absolute favorite pattern for this dress, Butterick 4443. I've made this dress quite a lot over the past few years, so I could pretty much put it together in my sleep. While I'm not terribly keen on the way mars landed both at the bottom of the bodice and the top of the skirt (oops), she still loves it.

I finished up the dress on Christmas Eve (last minute is just how I roll), so I didn't really have time to add any fun trims and details. When my stepdaughter tried it on Christmas day, it was little big, so I’ll be taking it in when she comes back to our house next week, thus no photos of it on her yet. I’ll ask her if she wants any added frills then. I’m keeping my eyes open whenever I go shopping for a belt and cardigan in one of those bright colors so she can have a complete look.