DIY Flower Girl Dress

I wanted to do something special for our beautiful 8 year old flower girl and decided to make her dress. After shopping around, I found that most 'flower girl' dresses are poofy, frilly nightmares really intended for those of the toddler variety. Rather, I wanted something simple and elegant for our very mature and sweet attendant, and decided to model her dress after mine.

The gown started as three yards of ivory silk (yes, silk! I found a great sale on it and love the way it drapes and photographs) dupioni, 3 yards of cream lining, and a yard of purple polyester dupioni (the same fabric we'll be using to make the bridesmaid gowns).

The pattern itself was very simple, and is a standard, round neck tank style a-line sundress. I modified the pattern so that the back of the bodice would close as a v shape, not round.

Because I was working with silk, I took extra care to trace and cut the pattern as perfect as possible, and used sharp scissors to keep the edges from fraying.

Once the dress itself was constructed, I worked on the sash. I originally made a sash out of a purple charmuese, but once we had decided on the dupioni I changed it so it wouldn't clash with the bridesmaids. Changing it actually inspired me to make it more like the sash on my dress, and I think that the result is so much nicer than what I had originally created!

The photo to the right is the original sash. Above and below (left) is the new one, that closely models mine without being an exact match. To make the
new sash, I sewed two long tubes that would cross each other in the front, inverted them, and ironed them flat.

I also made the sash tails by creating a pattern on tracing paper, sewing the edges, inverting it, and again ironing it flat.

I pinned the bodice part of the sash to the dress and tacked it on from the inside; the tacks don't show because they are hidden by the lining! The sash tails will be attached to the gown with snaps, and the bodice part will close with buttons. This finish work will be done by our Flower Girls family, because we want to make sure that the dress fits her (she lives in another state) before sewing in the zipper or cutting the sash to fit.

I cannot wait to see her in this dress! Other finishing touches will include a row of ivory bridal buttons down the back of the bodice (which will close with button loops) and a small crinoline specially made just for her (the skirt is very full in this pattern and to make it more formal I wanted to fill it out).