Lu's pink organdy heirloom dress.

This is my very favorite dress from Lu's closet.

The pictures just can't do it justice, it's such a beautiful dress and a large part of its charm is the colors and textures that I think are better displayed in person. (I also had pitiful indoor lighting today since it started to rain just as I was preparing to take pictures!)

Can you stand the cuteness that is little Lu & G-man in 2004??


(G helped make his shirt, picking out all the "Mad Scientist" machine embroidery designs from...?? Lordy I'm getting old because I can't remember the name of this embroidery design artist! Threadsketches! SUCH cute designs. Alas, my kiddos have long since outgrown her.)

The bodice of the dress is white Italian organdy, embellished with a machine embroidery design I combined using Embird. I don't remember the card with the floral oval, but the fairy alphabet was a freebie from several years ago. I don't even have it on this computer to look it up. It's saved on a backup disk somewhere...


The bodice has puffing strips and beading lace, and every seam, including sleeves, is joined with pink entredeaux.


The white organdy sleeves have a shaped lace loop, pinstitched in place by machine...


Sleeve beading and lace ruffles:


The rest of the dress is a pale pink over-embroidered organdy. I had little more than one yard of the pink, and I saved it for a few years until I had the skill to design the perfect project. The skirt is almost entirely made of the pink, except for the shaped loops in the center front; each features machine embroidered white organdy center.


I used the same design card for the florals as the bodice, and added two of the fairies from the freebie alphabet. Here is a closeup of one of the side loops. All of the fairy wings and the "wing needle work" below is stitched with silver thread:


Here is the entire skirt front, flat:


The hem has a ruffle edged in lace, joined to the skirt with pink entredeaux.


This little dress is a size 6 and was Lu's Easter dress in 2004. Lu, age 6:


And one of my favorite photos of the 3 of us, all in pink (I must have really planned that year):


I wanted to show this dress because by this point in my sewing experience, I had enough skill to tackle the machine embroidery, the lace shaping, the fancy color entredeaux and expensive organdy fabrics. Sometimes as a beginner, you just KNOW you aren't ready for a project.

I had had the pink fabric from the time Lu was a small toddler, and I kept it stored safely away until I knew I was ready. And this turned out to be the perfect project to showcase it!

I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend! I'm going to try to concentrate my next sewing adventure on fall things for ME. I'm participating in Self-Stitched September and, well, I have nothing to wear! Yikes.