Minnie.

My friend is taking a Disney Cruise, so she asked me to make her girls some outfits (and one for her niece's birthday who is also attending the cruise).  

She found some outfits she liked on Pinterest and set me to the task of recreating them. 

First up of the bunch are Minnie dresses.  There will also be a Merida inspired, pirate (I guess there is a special pirate night from what I can gather?), and another Minnie inspired shirt and skirt set.

This is the set that included one for her niece.  The two on the outside are 12m and the middle is a 5T.  I really, really struggled with this pattern, it should have been a very simple sew and tops taken only a few hours.  I guess that is the scary thing about buying on Etsy, you never know what you are going to get, especially when you don't use a well known pattern maker.  Seriously, why can't Oliver + S make everything I could ever possibly think of sewing? HA! If only.

I made the first one (and luckily only cut one out at a time), ALL the measurements were terribly off.  So many things didn't line up, it took me a few hours just to re-do all the measurements and a lot of wasted fabric that shouldn't have been.  Sigh.  I feel bad saying such horrible things about a pattern, usually I can find one thing nice to say, but not with this one.  So, if you are buying a pattern that looks similar and you are worried, flickr mail or email me and I can tell you if it's the same one.  I left a bad review on her Etsy site and it looks like going back a year or so I was the only one to leave a review AFTER making the dress, most reviewed based on her just "sending out the pattern fast" or that they "can't wait to make the adorable dress".  Sigh.

The Brave inspired dress will also be from this pattern, but after I re did all the measurements I figured why not, right?  I've already done half the work!

So back to the dress.  The one she liked had a cross over strap, but not having the kids here to measure and fit along the way and struggling to find a cross strap pattern I chose to go with the halter strap option.  (turns out this pattern did have the cross strap, but I was again nervous that being the measurements were off everywhere else, they would be there too, and a halter is a safer option).  There is elastic in the back to give it a nice shape and I added an extra layer to the skirt and the ties at the side.

The dresses were a lot of work, but I hope she likes them because I think the girls will be adorable in them!