Bubble, Bubble

Toil and Trouble.  Some days, that's exactly what staying at home with a three year old feels like. 

 
This is the first year that my daughter is old enough to be excited about Halloween and wearing a costume.  About a month ago we started asking her what she wanted to be for Halloween, and each time it was a different answer:  Cinderella.  A cat.  Queen Elsa.  The only rule was that once I bought the fabric, she could not change her mind.  So when she finally gave the same answer for an entire week, "a witch", we finally went ahead with the costume.

I have to say, I am really, REALLY proud that I completed this project a full three weeks before Halloween, and not at 1 a.m. the night before (or, more realistically, at 3 in the afternoon before Trick or Treating).

 For the pattern I used the Chole Dress pattern from Violette Field Threads.  I used the same pattern in August to make a flower girl dress, and decided that I was going to be brave (crazy?) enough to try it again for a witch's outfit.  And fortunately for my sanity, it was sooo much easier this time around.  The pattern calls for three layers in the skirt:  a layer of chiffon, a layer of netting, and a layer of tulle.  After struggling with the chiffon in the flower girl dress, I decided not to use it for this dress.  I didn't think the chiffon added much to the shape or the look of the skirt (at least for the tea length version), and so it didn't seem worth it to mess with it this time.  So for the three layers I used netting, tulle, and then a Halloween mesh fabric from Joann's for the top layer. 

Two quick notes about this pattern:  First, the picture on the patten cover shows a much, much fuller skirt on the tea length version.   After making it twice, I have never been able to achieve that look.  So I don't know if I'm missing something, or if there were extra layers beyond what the instructions call for that were added to those dresses.  Secondly, the pattern says that a lining is "optional", but both dresses required lining so as not to be really see-through.  So if anybody else has had any experience making this dress, I'd love to hear about it. 

Here's the back of the dress:

And voila, a perfect witch's dress for a three year old who likes to be fancy!