Cafe Creme Layered Dress

Adrielle (Kish Wren) feels all grown up in her lacy dress.

This dress kind of designed itself as I went. I stumbled across some milk coffee coloured embroidered net at a charity shop and couldn't not buy it. When I got home I tossed it into a box of fabric and it landed on the satin I used for the underdress and I knew I had to make a dress from it!

I originally wanted the finished dress to look a bit more like this :

 Eliza dress from I Love Gorgeous's 2013 Summer collection

But because the Chrysalis girls don't really have a waist, I couldn't find a way to make the waist look right. Everything I tried made it look really chunky and out of proportion. So I decided to use a belt instead of a gathered waistline. And when I put the belt on I decided to place it a bit higher, because I thought it looked better.

The hem was going to be plain. But I found some pleated ribbon and had to add it. Then I had to shorten the overdress so the ribbon showed. 

 I'm actually feeling a little bit mod in this dress!

The belt was made with a length of ribbon and a buckle I actually got from an office supply store, lots of scrap booking shops sell similar things.

Truthfully making this was an absolute nightmare, mostly because the fabrics were apparently trying to drive me insane. The satin had an explosion of fraying every time I breathed anywhere near it, and the net decided it wanted to be anywhere except where I wanted it to be!

The overdress is wider than the underdress and it was supposed to be gathered onto the neckline, but with the way the satin was fraying I decided it would be better to just pleat the excess net in at the centre, which actually worked quite well.

I also like the way the brown looks against Adrielle's ginger hair.

Ok so construction. It's a simple a-line so it isn't complicated and the pattern still has the longer overdress but anyway. . .

Cut the pattern pieces, place the right sides of the overdress pieces against the wrong sides of the under dress pieces and stitch them together along the armholes and neckline.

Then turn the pieces inside out so the outside is the right side of the overdress and the inside is the wrong side of the underdress.

Sew the shoulder seams.

Topstitch the neckline and armholes, this isn't absolutely necessary  but keeps the layers from slipping around later when you're dressing the doll. When top-stitching the neckline, continue down the back as far as you plan on having the back open.

Sew the side seams. Preferably sewing the underdress and overdress seams separately, but you can combine them.

Sew the closed part of the back seam, combining underdress with overdress as one seam.

Add fastenings.

Then add a belt or sash.

I've totally forgotten what I was doing. Adrielle looking unusually vacant.

To make a belt you need a buckle. Lot's of places that sell scrapbooking or craft supplies sell tiny buckles or you could harvest one from another doll's unwanted dress or even from an old pair of shoes. Or in a pinch you could use one of those sliders that go on bra straps. Make a loop with the end of the ribbon around the crossbar and stitch in place and trim to length. (I never actually trimmed mine or made anything to hold the ends in place which is why her right armed is pinioned to her side in all the pictures - it's keeping the incredibly long end of her belt from moving.)

And now I'm ready for my coffee thanks!