Violet's Birthday Dress

I bought the fabric for Violet's birthday dress and I started playing around with ideas on how to design her dress.  I had an idea of what I wanted to make but when I saw the Marrakech Dress Pattern, I scrapped my idea and bought the pattern for $5.  I didn't pay attention when I bought it so I didn't notice that the pattern only included sizes 2T-5T....and I needed a size 18 months for Violet.  I figured that I could grade down the pattern myself or cut out the 2T and just take it in a little.  I taped together my pattern pieces and started cutting my fabric.

As I began to assemble the dress I realized that there were quite a few things off with the pattern pieces.  I am not sure if it was because of a printing error or what happened, but the shoulder parts were off by 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch.  The front skirt and back skirt pieces were oddly shaped, the front had a curved hip and the back a straight hip.  Also, the pleated neckline piece was too short.  My neckline for the 2T measured 23 inches and the piece for the pleated neckline was only 38 inches long.  The instructions do not indicate how large the pleats should be in order to make the pleated piece fit, so I pleated and pinned it twice before I realized that the piece was too short.  There was no way for it to fit like the photo.  Luckily I had some extra fabric so I cut more and extended the band.

One of the main reasons I purchased this pattern was because I fell in love with the pictures used to show off the dress.  The hot pink layers of tulle looked so pretty and I wanted to recreate the same dress.  I was disappointed to learn that the instructions don't include how to make the tulle circle skirt(s).  Instead, the instructions say to use google search to find online tutorials on how to measure and cut circle skirts.  Additionally, the skirt pictures that are included in the instructions look like they were recycled from a previous pattern and they don't show off how the pleats are supposed to look.  I really felt like this pattern was quickly thrown together for the sake of being able to make the STYLO Magazine publishing date.

Currently the pattern is priced at $2 which I think is a bit more reasonable considering the limited sizes and the lack of instructions and pictures.  This dress came out cute but I can only say that I used the bodice pieces and the inspiration from the pattern because I had to make a lot of changes to "make it work".