Girls Regency Dress for Winter

So, I've been wanting to get the Girls Regency Dress Pattern from Sense & Sensibility Patterns ever since my first daughter was born. With my sister-in-law getting married this Spring I finally had the perfect excuse to buy it!

As I had been told that the dress runs big I decided to make a mock-up first.  But I didn't want to go through all the trouble of making a dress that wasn't going to be used, especially since my daughter really needed more winter dresses.  So I figured I could do both at once!

Based on my daughter's measurements she was still a size 1, but she's 21 months old, so I wanted to try making the size 2 first.  As the purpose of this dress was to check the fit, I thought I'd go ahead and make the slip-on version, with elastic in the neck and waist.  So easy!  This pattern went together like a dream.

The fabric I choose was from a flannel bed sheet.  The print is bigger than I would like, but my pink flannel is buried in a tub under lot's of boxes, and very inaccessible.  However, the large print of the flannel actually made it extremely easy to match the plaids!  I was also able to cut the skirt out in one piece because of the width of the sheet.

The sleeve pattern is extremely long for such little girls so I had to shorten it for my little Missy.  Unfortunately, I shortened it a little too much.  I'll be making the short sleeve versions for the wedding, so I won't have to make that mistake again!

I really like the slip-on version, and think I'm going to use that again for the dress for the wedding.  I think it will actually work better that way since I'm making several months in advance, and don't know exactly how big my girls will be by the wedding.

She had so much fun with her photo shoot!