The "Once Upon a Dream" Dress

I got to work as soon as the girls went to sleep last night and started sewing.  The top half of the dress was pretty much done, but the bottom hadn't been started yet.  A few minutes before Sadie woke up for her first nightly "Mommmmmmma!!!!" yell I finished sewing and laid the dress out for her to find in the morning:

 

I'm hoping the little flowers stay on!

I had my computer with me (trying to get a few emails out) last night and since Sadie was awake I showed her a picture of the dress before putting the computer away.  That proved to be a mistake because she lay there with her eyes wide open and a huge smile for quite some time.  When she woke up this morning she jumped up and sprinted into the living room and squealed in delight.  Here she is trying on the dress for the first time:

 

And the dancing and singing begins... 

 

Then she had to find her Sleeping Beauty doll.  And her Sleeping Beauty Barbie doll.  And her princess book... 

Not bad for a patternless attempt at sewing.  I did glance this tutorial, but as with recipes I tend to be better at looking at the pictures and not so great at reading, or following instructions.  I did rely on it heavily for the sleeves though.  I'd never sewed sleeves before! 

Now I just need to sew one for Mae Bae (and a saint costume for Mae Bae too!  and a veil to go with Sadie's Holy Baby Dress for All Saint's Day!).  We're looking at yellow for the Bae I think.  Or maybe baby blue!

I do think I'm starting to get faster at sewing.  This took about ten hours if you subtract the hand sewing time for something that I ended up going over with a machine (I was initially afraid to sew the pearls with the machine, and while I did go through three or four sewing machine needles while making this dress, the lace is much more secure than it was when I was sewing it on by hand!).