Poofy Peasant Princess

Ever since Eliana requested I make her a Belle princess dress I have been trying to figure out how to do just that.   I wanted to make a rough draft dress because the yellow fabric I bought for Belle is too cute to risk messing up.

In all my sewing adventures I had never attempted the peasant dress.  All the elastic and casings intimidated me!  I found a great free pattern for the basic peasant top and sleeves. Click here for Bandy Canyon’s free pattern.  I used this pattern for my blueprint, then added an underskirt, and a top skirt with gathers and bows.

This was my other inspiration for the dress:

I love the gathers and the bows! This is what the dress looks like without the poofy:

And here is a closer look at the neckline and sleeves:

The sleeves turned out super cute! But making the casing on them was hard because they are not in a straight line. Any tips on hemming a curved edge?? 

Eliana now has 2 homemade princess dresses! Judging by how much she loves them, I will be making princess dresses for the next year!  Yay!