This next dress is a special dress: it was made for Eesa's birthday. She was turning 7 and wanted a unicorn theme for her birthday party. I had the idea of this dress long before her birthday, so it was just a matter of buying all the fabric and getting to work! I chose broadcloth for the skirt because broadcloth is cheap, lightweight, and doesn't wrinkle as easily, and comes in an array of bright colors--just perfect for the flounce skirt (I made a Christmas version here), designed by Candy Castle Patterns. I'm not a fan of the original bodice of this dress pattern, so I instead I chose to use the Harlow bodice from Violette Field Threads and simply mashed it with the skirt pattern from Candy Castle Patterns.
My first step was the embroidery. I chose white 100% cotton because I've decided that I do not like using broadcloth for bodices. It is too thin, doesn't have much stretch, and I'd prefer something more breathable since broadcloth is mostly polyester (65% to be exact). Above all, however, I didn't trust broadcloth to hold the embroidery well. I chose a unicorn illustration from an internet shirt, printed it off, and copied it onto the fabric using a pencil and sunlight. I started with the outline of the unicorn, and then proceeded to fill in the mane using a type of embroidery stitch that I'm sure has a name, but I had no idea what it is.
Then I proceeded to sew the dress up, making sure the unicorn was centered. I used some leftover navy piping for the seams of the princess cut the same color as the unicorn outline. It helped to frame the embroidered unicorn, add contrast to the stark white shirt, and really just bring the bodice and skirt together. The skirt isn't hard to sew; it just takes a long time because those flounces have many, many, many inches of edges! I usually like to sew in a sash to Eesa's dress because she's so thin and a sash really brings the dress together, in more ways that one!
I looooove this dress, its one of my faves and I am never, ever selling it. Keeping it forever. The dress turned out so cute, that I also made one for my niece. This dress made the perfect party dress, so colorful with a massive twirl factor. I ordered a rainbow unicorn headband to match, and dang this girl just looked so adorable in her new rainbow unicorn dress! Here are the many pictures:
It took a lot of material to make the skirt!
Embroidering the unicorn. Fun and easy! But not necessarily quick.
So twirl-a-liciousness!!
I just love the colorful swirls of this dress so much!
So darling!
Matching cousin dresses!
PS (yep, making a long post even longer): For Eesa's birthday party, I made a unicorn pinata that matched the unicorn on her dress. We might have been able to keep the unicorn (it wasn't too badly bashed) but some crazy girl at her party demonically shredded the poor unicorn head in a thousand pieces in a fit of hysteria. I was not happy about that and was cleaning up unicorn hair that had been strewn about for a long time after that. I made the unicorn using cardboard, glue gun, and a paper towel roll. Then I painted the face part white and covered it with white crepe paper. The mane was just different colored crepe paper cut in half lengthwise and glued in. The face details were just black construction paper that I cut and glued, and for the horn I painted using gold and sparkly gold nail polish since I didn't have any gold paint :
She was so happy with her unicorn pinata!
The pinata in action
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