My little angel turns 8 - mood board inspired dress

Dear Readers,

I know I haven't been posting regularly on the blog, but those of you who are on www.facebook.com/AdithisCouture know that I have been sewing ... I still have so many pending posts ,..oh yes elsa dress is still WIP post :( 

Ok now let me get on to this post. This is about the birthday dress I made for my little girl who actually isn't little anymore, she turned 8 !

Had made a sewing mood board using thermocol  and the first project on it was for her bday dress. I gave her collection of magazines and asked her to choose dresses she liked, it could be color, cut, design, embellishment anything she liked. She chose few and based on that I added a few and made the mood board

I have the mood board right above my sewing desk . I am surprised at the impact that it had on my design and sewing, I was improvising and working on bodice of frock and after having completing it, it was shocking to me that a design on mood board had come through in the bodice albiet in a morphed form , but It did come and without actually intending to do so while working on the bodice ...so yes Mood boards work big time and I recommend it for every sewista, infact for every creative person , I am sure it will help in your design and execution , especially when you get a whole whirlwind of ideas and don't know which ones to shortlist and choose ...pls try it out and you will be happy with your mood board .

Now let's talk about the dress in detail. As you can see the number 8 itself was in teal color as chosen by Adithi and the dress base color will be teal. She wanted to have peocock colors so teal, blue and green, slight hint of purple,  but I gave up on green and used teal, light blue, ink blue and a purple, blue, teal mixed fabric, sorry forgot the name, it was japanese something fabric I found in Kamdar. 

Oh yes fabric shopping was an ordeal, as I tried Spotlight once and couldn't get much to suit the mood board within my budget, which is surprising and had even thought of changing the pallete for the dress but decided to try one more attempt at shopping and I stuck s good deal this time at kamdar, the right colors, texture and price that I was looking for .

Bodice took an entire swwing day , with blink tuck pleats (yes my latest sewing technique obsession!!) which were in bias and then I filled in the gap between two pleated spaces using fan made of fabric in 3 colors, yes I went avant garde and to be honest I am pleased with the result, though I was initially apprehensive thinking if I am going over board... One shoulder bodice was drafted and I added elastic infused, intertwined straps for more stability on the other side. It has back zipper opening and is lined with cotton satin. Oh yes the main fabric for bodice is teal color tafetta . Wanted the skirt to start from low waist , hence added a big waist band with mixed color fabric 

With the bodice done, it was a tough decision to choose which fabric to use for skirt the dark blue organza or the mixed color name not known fabric . Adithi chose the later. Made an high low circle skirt which runs high low from side to side rather than front to back. Also another layer of ink blue organza is beaneath it and then  It is interlied with tafetta and underlined with cotton satin half circle skirt . Yes lots of layers for skirt and it adds fullness and gives shape without using tulle and is light in weight ...the only fabric heavy was cotton satin lining!

Bow on strap is last minute addition as I felt strap too nude compared to all those avant garde fabric fans on bodice. Bow is separate and is attached to broooch pin, so it can worn with any other outfit. 

After a trial session, Adithi said waist was itching , since the waist seams were visible though overlocked..i adding a seam covering using bias strip of cotton sateen and covered up seams, yes couture finish fit for a princess ...

 Oh yes had also made tile jewellery to go with it, earrings and necklace using fabric .

She had an awesome day at school, yes this year she wanted to go to school on her bday ..every year at the start she says how she would like to celebrate her bday and we plan accordingly ...last year she wanted a surprise a big one, so we took her to disneyland hongkong, this year she wanted to celebrate with friends at school..so it was ..then we went to park and temple in the evening ... Her favourite Geronimo Stilton book collection was the bday gift, which we had hidden in different places in the house and sent her on a treasure hunt, she was thrilled and elated. ... Made her handmade pop up card and then evening surprise gift was scrabble , which we played seated at the park until late into night when mosquitoes ensured it was time to head back home ...it was awesome birthday fitting for a princess.... 

Meet Kawairashī on'nanoko aka Japanese Girl Avatar

Meet Adithi in her pretty little Japanese Girl Avatar

 BackView

Making Yukata (the traditional Japanese Summer Kimono) was qutie challenging. I had never seen this outfit in person before and had to make use of the pics i found on the net as reference. Checked a few online tutorials on how to make it, and more i saw them, the more confused i was. so after an hour or so of wandering on the net, i decided to take things under control and started drafting own pattern directly on fabric. 

Fabric folded lengthwise with chest width + 1.25 inch (mistake, i had to add 2+inches or so for overlap at front, will correct it next time ) and marked front and back pieces together without shoulder seam (sorry didn't take any pic while making it as i was too preoccupied figuring it out) , so mostly a rectangle with neck curve and sleeve without any curve as in armhole which are cut straight

Collar was another lengthy rectangle and had to sewn around neck and center front overlap sides . this is more like modern day bathrobe . I had miscalculated length of collar and next time when i make it will cut neck depth bit more at front so that overlap collar is up until low waist, rather than just below ribs in this outfit.

Sleeves were also a rectangle cut on fold with sleevelength as desired and breadth being armhole depth  * 2 as sleeves hang extra beyond armhole. This was most tough for me as couldnt figure out armhole vent which was there in pics and finally figured it out. I am still not sure if i did it right and i need to get my hands on Yukata to see if i did manage to sew it right.

 Made an Obi Belt, which was basically a  rectangle to fit her waist and added velcro straps at back. made a huge interfaced bow and attached it to the back of Obi. Making Obi was the easiest part of this entire outfit.

We were supposed to go to Bon Odori - festival on Saturday and since my hubby was unwell and it was raining heavily, we had to cancel it at the last minute. never mind we had a Bon Odori photosession at home! And she had loads of fun and said the outfit was very airy n comfy !!!! I did a cheatseat and added a godget at back for ease of movement and also to make up for my shortage on front overlap added a hidden flap overlap at front underside part. Liberty of sewista ...yay!!

Bon Odori @ home 

 Better view of Sleeves and yes a little bow hairclip made to match :)

She loved every moment of it and was jumping with joy ! ahoy !

Next time when i make yukata i will be more prepared and it will be much closer to original traditional version. 

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Little Princess Turns 7 - Sleeping Beauty Princess Aurora Inspired Dress

Adithi's Birthday is the special event of the year for us and we plan for it a couple of months ahead. Making the dress has been one of the important things to be planned and executed as it takes lot of time. Last year we had relocated just a month before Adithi's birthday and i missed out on making a dress for her and wanted to make up for this year and hence roped her in the design stage itself.

She is growing up fast and states her requirements whenever i make a dress for her and so the timing was just right to let her decide and choose the design for her b'day dress. Opened up PInterest for her and let her search for b''day dress designs, since we had planned a HongKong DisneyLand trip as her b'day surprise, i told her to chose some princess dress as she is of course our little princess.

She searched and zeroed in on Princess Aurora dress , the next day !

Now that the design had been chosen, i didnt quite like the collar shape of it and to my pleasant surprise found that the new dress design for the disney princess had a much softer pleated off shoulder collar, which Adithi also liked much and we finalized this design.

The fabrics as is the case with most of my outfits are Indian to the core. Banarasi Brocade, Kancheevaram silk, where else can you get such rich , luscious fabrics which stand up for the special occassions !

So with the just the design of sleeping beauty dress, we decided to use Indian fabrics and make a dress of a kind, Indo-western as is the style mantra for Adithi and Me.

I had earlier done off shoulder design for her. Check her 3rd Birthday outfit .


so the design part should'tn be difficult, or so i thought. Guess what making and draping of the off shoulder collar took a day.

The bodice itself is 3 pieces at the front and are embellished at the seam joins that form a "V"

The skirt part is enormous and twirls a LOT. Made use of 7 metres of fabric and gave it a double shade effect by using fuschia and gold tissue fabric for the skirt part and it has been lined using a full circle skirt in golden color satin fabric. The outer layer skirt actually is made of 6 circle skirts !

The Flower petal layer on the skirt also went through lot of brainstorming sessions as i initially planned to retain the sharp edge close fitted petals and then realized, it wont'be comfortable for Adithi and hence decided to do gathered loose fit Petal layer and glad i chose to do as it drapes far better than the sharp edge one on the Disney princess!

Made her try the dress and then altered the hem after letting the dress hang on the clothesline for a day so that hemline gets stabilized and all the bias edge of the curve hemline gets sorted. I do this for all the birthday ball gown type dresses so that the dress hangs beautifully even after washing.

The pleated collar drape has been handstitched (Oh yes i dont 'like to handstitch much and this dress tested my patience !) Somehow it felt little incomplete and decided to add tissue fabric handmade flowers and it took me a day to make those 4-5 flowers and chose the best ones to be hand stitched onto the beside 

 and

since the neck was deep at the back and it is an offshoulder neckline, decided to add a Dori (tie-string to tieup the back and hold the dress in place) with beaded hangings..perfect Indian touch i must admit and i just loved it :)

Now that the dress was complete, or so i thought, realized that i need to have those full sleeves which Adithi wasn't comfortable with so made a removable sleeves using net fabric.

The dress had taken a cool 3 weeks to complete and was well worth all those hours that went into making it.

Adithi was absolutely thrilled when she got to know that it is DisneyLand that she is going for her b'day celebration ! She got to know only when we boarded the Disneyland train and was jumping for joy!

We also had a session at Bibbidi Boutique to give her the princess makeover and i opted for the package without dress as she would of course wear her Amma made dress. It was surreal for her to be getting the princess makeover litereally !

Though the experience was enjoyable for her, as an adult, i could make out the commercial overtones at the botique and the staff werent actually that friendly considering their clientele age group. They were just milking money from lovestruck parents who wouldn't mind on their loved little one's special day!

The dress that boutique had to offer for  the princess aurora one was nowhere near the one that i have made, not saying this to boast, but really after checking the fabric, the design and the finish of the dress they offered and the one that is handmade by me, i can say with confidence that please opt to make one for your little ones or get it custom made, the one with the package isnt as comfy for the little ones.

Then there was the photosession which was cool as she was made to pose in myriad styles and she started the session with Oh My Goodness i am a celebrity mood to ending it with please I have had enough snaps, no more, i quit attitude !

The boutique obviously was charging sky high prices for physical copy of the photos and we chose to taken soft copy of the photos for which we paid HK$100 for each soft copy !

After the photoshoot we had a late breakfast and in the hotel lobby those who were around checked with us asking where we got the dress as it is very beautiful and different from the one the boutique had to offer, i was thrilled and tried being modest while saying I Designed the Dress.. it was a yes I have made a mark moment for me as a designer :)

Princess Adithi enjoyed her outfing in the dress until breakfast and then got changed and went to play in the disneyland Theme Park. She had loads of fun, especially at the Toy Story part of the park and also during the Disney Characters Parade at noon.

Much more fun was in store in the evening as we had booked dinner buffet and had ordered for custom made cake to be cut by the bday girl in the Enchanted Gardern Restaurant and the food spread was also good and extensive. The disney characters roamed around the restaurant and posed for snaps at each table and little one did have nice time. After the cake cutting, we headed for fireworks at the theme park and it was indeed a memorable birthday which i will cherish forever.

May god bless my little princess with all the love and happiness that she deserves . God Bless.