Gwen's Ruffle Dress

Oh geez. I logged on and it said my last post was 3 months ago! Busy much?

Can you believe my baby is turning 10 months old soon?! And my Gwen is turning 3 in a couple weeks! Days seems endless with kids but they add up so fast. So needless to say I've had birthdays on the brain.

I've been planning Gwen's party in a fury because it totally snuck up on me and since I have a tradition of making Gwen's birthday outfits (which I now have to keep up and do for Olivia now too) puts even more pressure to get things done. But. I have determined to make this party as stress-free as possible. But come on, I still have to make her an outfit.

So here are Gwen's last two outfits:

Aww... sniff.sniff.

And this wasn't on her actual birthday, but it's the only picture of the outfit I could find on this computer :)

My biggest struggle this year has been a theme. And I do not allow character parties and all she's been talking about has been Dora and Hello Kitty. So I decided to take her with me and pick some fabric or invites to get some inspiration. Let's just say the first try did not go well. But the next day we went out and she loved this little owl fabric. Then we found this flower fabric she liked too so this became the jumping off point for the party.

I then knew I wanted to do a dress because that would be easiest and she LOVES dresses right now. So I start scouring Pinterest for a ruffle dress tutorial. So I found one and bought a tank dress from Hobby Lobby:

I just decided how many ruffles I wanted, how far apart I wanted them and where I wanted them to start and being so high tech and precise I drew guidelines with a good o'le pencil.

Then adding a pile of ruffles.

After the ruffles were attached it was finished. Cute.

But knowing me, it was just missing something :)

So I decide to add a belt and a detachable flower. Now it is finished and super cute. So good Dan couldn't believe I made it.

The back.

How did she grow up so fast?

Pretty good for never having made a ruffle in my life, if I do say so myself. I'm making her wait to wear it for her birthday party but she asks to wear it every.day. She loves it and says "thank you, mommy" whenever she sees it. Definitely makes it worth it.