For Valentine’s Day, my husband and I decided to reprise our honeymoon trip and get the heck out of snowy icy Massachusetts for a week . Our itinerary was simple: spend some time with friends and family, go hiking, and spend a few days at the Happiest Place on Earth.
Since I am never one to pass up a theme, I decided that I needed a new dress for the occasion. I’d picked up this Michael Miller fabric (aptly named “Straight on ‘Till Morning“) last summer when I was at Gertie’s dressmaking retreat and had been holding on to it with the intent of making some sort of Disneyland-worthy dress.
I really wanted an iconic 50s style sundress, and after waffling a bit I settled on Simplicity 2880 (You can see a picture of the pattern envelope here). I swapped out the gored skirt for a gathered one — I gathered about 3 yards of fabric into the skirt so I’d be able to get a nice puffy 50s effect. Of course, since my suitcase was filled to the brim I ended up not bringing a petticoat, so I look a bit deflated here, but you get the idea. The other reason for the gathered skirt of course was because I was working with a border print.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have much border to work with, so I ended up facing the bottom hem so I didn’t have to lose any more length than necessary. I would have liked a larger blue border at the bottom of the skirt, but I couldn’t think of a great way to do that without a visible seam, plus I didn’t want to move Peter and the gang any further towards the waist since they get lost in the pleats enough as it is.
Of course, when I was checking the weather for our sunny California getaway it turned out that it was going to be more of a soggy California getaway, so I whipped up a super last-minute shrug in polar fleece (more details soon…) to winterize my outfits.
All in all, I was really happy with my dress, and I got lots of comments and compliments on it wearing it all day. And as I was finishing up taking these pictures, Peter Pan went running past and said “Nice dress!” so I think that’s a win.
Outfit Details
Blue hair flowers: Made by me
Blue confetti lucite earrings: Etsy
Blue fleece bolero: Made by me
Disneyland D brooch: Match Accessories
Peter Pan novelty border print dress: Made by me, Simplicty 2880
Blue cloth belt: Swiped from one of my vintage dresses
Opaque skintone tights: Capezio
Blue ankle-strap wedge sandals: Rocket Originals