Saturday, February 15, 2014

EYMM Kenzie Dress Blog Tour!

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BLOG TOUR DATES:

2/18 bebelambs


Happy (slightly late) Valentine's Day! I hope everyone got some good snuggle time with someone!  Mine involved a quick dinner out in our tiny town and two small ones insisting on being in the middle of any cuddling, but hey, small cuddles are good too. ;)

So I am REALLY excited about this post.  This is my first time being part of a blog tour and though I am completely nervous, I'm also really thrilled to be able to participate.  I've been slowly amassing a nice collection of patterns from Everything Your Mama Made & More! that are going into my "these will totally flatter the post baby bump, yes I know he's 1 1/2, that's not the point, now I just need time to sew for me" folder.  And when Kenzie's Party Dress came out the ideas swirled and swirled.  What a COOL dress, right?  

The important stuff:  
It is available in two size groups NB-4t and 5-18.  
There is also an 18" doll dress add-on available
OR you can purchase it all in one bundle at an awesome discount.
It can be made as the "Signature style" with all the flounces.
Or as a simple dress, which makes a perfect fancy party dress.
It has Cap sleeves or sleeveless options.

Or skip the dress and make a gorgeous high-waist skirt with or without flounces.

We chose the sleeveless signature style dress, I say we because you KNOW Inara was involved in this from step one...
What she is actually saying is ONE PICTURE, mom. 
When Kymy said the theme was "Spring," I decided to ask my friends what came to mind when I said the word "spring."  In case you are wondering, in the Pacific Northwest, it means "rain" to most people, though I got some great flower ideas from friends around the country.  Then a friend mentioned cherry blossoms, and the ideas started swirling.  Though I'm here now, I am a displaced NYer and the short drive to the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC is totally worth it... it's just gorgeous... and really, the blooming trees, the falling petals...  it just screams spring.... so that is what we were going for...



 Inara is a pretty standard size 5, so we didn't make any alterations to the bodice and the fit is perfect.  I wanted the skirt to look like falling petals, so I chose a drapey pink sheer from the fancy fabric aisle at my local Jo-ann and used this gorgeous Cherry Blossom print from Kona Bay: 

I was a little worried that it wouldn't show through, but I think the effect works...
The underskirt is a little short, with the bottom layer being sheer, but she wears playground-pants or leggings under her dresses anyways, and it just hangs sooooo pretty... I might eventually add another tier of underskirt when it gets warmer.  

I used these cute little snaps that had flowers on them, just to *extra* coordinate, lol

This pattern came together much faster than I expected, though I imagine that the rolled hem on the flounces made it faster then hemming them all.  The instructions are clear, and easy to follow, and the pictures make it so someone like me, who likes to just glance at photos, could follow along without any issues...
This is clearly a good dress to play football in.
 The only other changes we made were the added embroidery to the bodice -- by the way -- embroidering on satin was an interesting experience... I made the sash 8" wide, so it wouldn't cover my embroidery (after all that effort it NEEDED to show) and I changed the placket to the method I usually use... which looks like this:
This is on the doll version
And all of those changes were total personal preference.  The pattern contains every step by step construction method needed to create a  gorgeous, professional looking garment.  
And of course dolly needed one too...the doll add-on is totally worth it as well.  The pieces fit well and it goes together super fast. 
Dolly asked for a shorter dress, so she only got 2 flounce layers.

 I definitely see more of these in our future... even with all my interruptions, I still cut and finished both in one (late) night.  Which for us, is pretty darn good.  (Thank you Justin for taking the kids to Walmart while I cut pieces out!).



And of course the most important test of any fancy dress?  This one passes with flying colors... THE TWIRL TEST!

So one more time, you can get Kenzie's Party Dress here.  You will definitely not be disappointed in this pattern!

Make sure you pop over to see Lydia's gorgeous dress at My 3 Little Kiwis
And check out Confessions of a Barefoot Housewife's stop on the tour tomorrow!

A huge thank you for everyone who stopped by to check out our dress, and another huge thanks to Kymy from Everything Your Mama Made and More! for letting us be part of this awesome tour!

1 comment:

  1. So pretty, love the softness of this cherry blossom dress :)

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