Toddler Twirly Dress Fail and Redemption

We are finishing up with potty training our two year old daughter. We are very very close to being completely done. The problem I've ran into is that she has accidents when wearing pants or leggings but has yet to have a public accident while wearing a skirt or dress. Obviously as a result she has been wearing skirts and dresses everywhere. I recently purchased this dress from Lil Blue Boo. I made the mistake of telling my daughter it was her "big girl dress" and she had to wear panties with it when we ripped open the package the minute it arrived (can you tell I was SUPER excited for it to arrive?). I waited to buy our first Lil Blue Boo dress until I thought my daughter would really appreciate and love it. Good news - my daughter is now the biggest Lil Blue Boo fan! Unfortunately she now refers to this dress as her "big girl dress" and pretty much refuses to get dressed unless she can wear it (or is offered a major award for picking out something else from her closet). When the dress gets dirty, she marches it to the laundry room and demands I put it in the washing machine. Clearly this is a problem. Deep down I'm absolutely thrilled she has a Lil Blue Boo crush like her mommy (me) but seriously, this could get expensive! Yesterday I decided I could make a twirly dress and tell my daughter it was just like her "big girl dress." That little plan didn't work out so well.

I started with an old shirt that clearly does not fit. It needed to get out of my closet before I convinced myself I could wear a huge shirt with a belt and look fashionable.


Yikes, that shirt was terrible. Along with an old green t-shirt, I cut out my dress pieces.


I sewed everything together and ended up with this:



That picture doesn't show the true terribleness (just looked it up, that is a word) of the dress. I didn't want to bother with hemming sleeves so I used the sleeve from the t-shirt. Obviously that wasn't a good option for this project. The sleeves didn't work, the neck was too big, and the length was too long.

I showed it to my daughter and told she had a new "big girl dress." My sassy little girl quickly responded, "that not my big girl dress!" I wrestled her down and forced it on..there may have been some candy bribes throughout that fun process. She hated it and it looked awful. Unfortunately she knew we were supposed to be going to the Ostrich Festival after we were ready so she refused to take off the hidious dress. I finally got the dress back and quickly sewed it to a tank she had hanging in her closet.


Did we end up with a new "big girl dress?" No. It wasn't what I had envisioned but ultimately we ended up with a little twirly dress that my daughter actually agreed to wear. She put it on and we were off to the Ostrich Festival for some fun.


I should add that I recently purchased some patterns from Lil Blue Boo and I can't wait to sew something!!