The Sewing Goatherd: Clouds and Butterflies - a Toddler's Vintage Style Easter Dress

I had a general idea for my niece's Easter dress, which I discussed with my sister-in-law. There was the blue cotton batik with butterflies I'd bought as an option for my niece's Easter dress last year. We'd picked something else last year, but we could use it this year! I was thinking we could use that for a very full and fluffy tiered skirt paired with a white bodice - there was a very pretty textured white cotton in my mom's stash which she offered me for this purpose.

So that was the plan - until I went through my pattern stash to find a pattern that would work and stumbled upon a pattern I'd forgotten I had - a vintage little girl's McCall's pattern. It had a scalloped yoke, scallops on the skirt, and puffed sleeves. I fell in love with it at once. There was only one issue - it was a size 2. Lately I've been making my niece size 3 dresses. I looked at the size chart on the back of the envelope. The size 2 measurements matched niece's measurements perfectly. This just might work! I texted my sister-in-law a picture of the pattern then called her to consult on the sizes. She agreed that a size two should work just fine.

So the 1950's McCall's 7967 it would be! The blue butterfly batik for the bodice and skirt, and the white textured cotton for the yoke and skirt band. I'd lower the neckline a bit so it wouldn't feel too tight, and add a bit of length to the skirt since my niece is tall.

The pattern instructions said to press under the raw edge of all the scalloped pieces 5/8". I sewed a line of stitching around the scallops 1/2" from the edge to use as a guide.

Once I pressed under the raw edges on all the scallops I used the pattern pieces to line up the yoke properly on the bodice.

And I did the same with the skirt and skirt band.

Then the scalloped piece was topstitched onto the other piece to form a lapped seam.

The piece was pressed.

And the excess seam allowance was trimmed off the back.

Once the scallops were sewn the dress was assembled like any child's dress.

I lined the yoke as the white fabric was rather sheer.

The puffed sleeves are gathered into a band of bias tape.

And the dress fastens with a row of purple-ish pink buttons down the back of the bodice.

After a week of scheduling conflicts and missed opportunities I started to worry that we would have a repeat of last year and my niece wouldn't have her dress in time for Easter.