I wanted to document the dress more for my own journaling purposes than for anything else. I wish I had taken more "during" pictures because I am surely amazed at how raw, plain materials can become something so beautiful.
First of all, I never planned on doing a dress like this. I've seen copies of Sew Beautiful magazine and always thought, "There's no way I could sew like that. I don't even know what they're talking about." But I did want to make a special white dress to show the symbolism of the purity and cleansing action of baptism. I figured I'd do something really simple, like a classic boatneck in simple white fabric--nothing fancy, not much detail. But as I said earlier, Maddie was really impressed with Tib's accordian pleat dress in the Betsy-Tacy series (if you haven't read, I highly recommend. They're just plain fun). So for fun, I looked up some fancier patterns and asked her if she like any of them. She decided on the New Orleans Insertion Dress by GingerSnaps Designs. I had a month to get it made. I should be able to do it, and I was really excited to try. So I ordered the pattern. I couldn't order the materials at the same time because they are specific to each pattern design--a big pain. So, wait wait wait 7 days for pattern to come. Then--tax my math skills in figuring out goods. When I got the needed items in my cart (and I seriously skimped) it came to $94. I wasn't even sure I could justify it. But Tyler said if I really wanted to, go ahead. Wait wait wait another 8 days for the materials to come. By now, I have 4 days to finish the dress in time for her birthday (this was my utmost goal, but as long as I got it finished by the baptism, I was ok). Then, of course, when the stuff does come, the entredeux is in ecru--not white!!!! Ahhhhh! Luckily my local Stitch in Knits came through and had some in white. While I was there, I also got some lace beading for the sleeves, a pintuck foot and a tinier twin needle. The cost is now well over $100. Oh, don't forget to add the super-fine thread too. Sheesh. 
OK, it was just nerve wracking to cut into the materials. But I practiced the twin-needle pin tucks (I had practiced a bit earlier) and all I can say is the pintuck foot is a life-saver! It kept all the tucks nice and parallel to each other. I got the tucking done in less than an hour. After that I sewed the lace to the entredeax (the tiny ladder looking stitching between the lace and tucking) and the skinnier lace to the bigger lace. Here I would like to give thanks to the book Fine Machine Sewing by Carol Ahles. Another life-saver. She explains all these techniques in detail including which stitches to use, and what length and width. Saved a ton of time instead of trying to figure out myself. Then more fabric to the lace and more lace inserted near the arm seam. For that, you sew the lace down flat, cut the fabric behind, iron back and then hemstitch using the Parisian hemstitch which I am lucky enough to have on my machine. Again, I practiced this beforehand. The hemstitching isn't totally visable, I would use a bigger needle if I had one.
The sleeves are pintucked, lace gathered and sewn carefully to the lace beading and then to entredeux then to the gathered sleeve. Lots of steps. Took awhile. And lots of starch.
The back of the bodice has 3 rows of insertion on each side. I didn't hemstitch this, just appliqued with a fine zigzag.
The skirt was intended to have 5 more major rows of insertion added, but for cost purposes, I omitted that part. I still had to gather (by hand) 10 yards of lace. This took forever!!! It was the most tedious and unrewarding part of the dress. But I got the ruffles done and the blasted lace sewn on. After that it was just construction which went fairly easily. There were a few mishaps due to late nights: I cut some lace too short and some got mangled in the sewing machine and my ruffle seams don't line up exactly, but overall it turned out better than I expected (I have amazingly low expectations when I sew).
And I got it done Saturday night at 12am. It was at that point I realized I forgot to buy ribbon for the sash and sleeves... Good thing I still had the ribbon from my quilt packaging...
