The "Butterfly Back" Dress is complete!

While this dress has bullions and a big bow, it also has a "butterfly back", an additional layer attached to the back skirt. It is cut on an angle using a "wavy" acrylic ruler and rotary cutter. I have seen this back treatment on a few designer coats out this year and thought it would be a nice feature to translate to a child's dress. The two "butterfly" pieces are slightly gathered  then pleated with a couple of large pleats. They are then treated as one with the gathered back skirt. The end of the "tail" is embroidered with several bullion roses and a few are placed along the wavy edges as well.
The front of the dress is pretty traditional. It has a center panel of smocking done on the horizontal and princess seams. I draped little Sophie on my last visit and got this bodice all worked out. Once the smocking was done I wanted a bit more length in the panel so decided to add the ruffle at the top.

 Pattern: Other than the sleeve, and I truly don't remember where I got it from, the design is original. I was inspired by this Kate Spade trench with its back bow and panel.
                                             and Kathy Dystra's gorgeous pinafore from AS&E. Some of the details were worked out as I went along as is often the case when working out your own design.

Fabric: The fabric is a quilting cotton from a new to me quilt shop I discovered this summer. There are two separate yardages, the allover print and the stripe. It was a pleasant challenge to figure out how to work out the print. The only thing I would redo on this is maybe cut the back butterfly panel on the bias to give it further emphasis. The piping and ruffle are from a dark red silk dupioni. I think it is the perfect foil for the gray. I used DMC floss for the embroidery and this time I am happy with the colors I chose.

Construction: The Butterfly Back panel has a baby hem and assorted bullions here and there. It is in two sections so that it could accommodate the placket which I showed how I did in yesterday's post. The bow is interfaced with bias cut hair canvas.

For buttons I used vintage mother of pearl buttons. The bow is attached on the left with some tacking stitched and on the right with fabric covered snaps. This way it can be opened to put the dress on.

One Christmas dress done. Audrey has several occasions where Sophie will wear this dress over the holidays.  I am on the hunt for fabric for one for Carly now. I will need some white velvet and hope to pick that up while in NH in a couple of weeks. I have lots of fabric shopping planned for that trip. Hopefully I will find all on my list.
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Since I completed the dress yesterday I have been pleating away on strips of silk. I have also dyed quite a few. These will be used for more Christmas presents. More to come on this.

Next project is a window treatment for Audrey. Back with more soon....Bunny