Happy Dia de los Muertos!!

What???  You mean to say that you didn’t make dresses for your children just to celebrate Dia de los Muertos??!?!

I really can’t say that celebrating “Dia de los Muertos” is in my cultural background, but I am Catholic and celebrate All Souls Day (Nov. 2), AND I appreciate how Dia de los Muertos/All Souls Day is a day to celebrate and remember friends and family who have passed.  Also, my children are half-Hispanic and it is a day celebrated by their grandmother, etc., in the cultural/traditional sense, so it seems natural to teach my children about the day from both viewpoints.

And I must then also admit that I love Alexander Henry’s fabric line, and I thought my girls would look super-cute in it!

And they did!  Julia got the pink sugar skull dress:

Julia’s dress is New Look 6796.  It was easy to make AND I just love how it came out.  I will definitely make this dress again! I love how the ruffle is ruffled at its top!

I keep meaning to try it on Elena to see if it is a good little tanktop for her, but I haven’t done that yet.  It would be great to get something for both girls out of the same garment!  (Of course, not that Elena’d wear it in that fashion since she only wears dresses!)

By the way, Julia loved the pumpkins with “chicken pox,” as Elena termed them.  Julia would laugh every time she found another pumpkin afflicted with the pox, like the pumpkin in the picture above and this one below:

Elena then had her dress made with black sugar skull fabric:

Elena’s dress is McCall’s M5569.  I’m not the biggest fan of how this came out, but I don’t think it’s the pattern’s fault.  I think I should have chosen to add more pink to this.  I’m thinking of maybe adding a pink bow around the waist and a band of the pink sugar skull fabric along the bottom.  Any opinions?  I think the dress just suffers from too much of the black fabric.  I’m kinda wishing a had just made a poofy-twirly skirt out of the fabric.

I did have a couple issues with the pattern though.  First was that it required a FULL 44 inch width fabric to make the skirt, and my fabric was simply not the full width — more like 42 inches.  That was easily fixed since the dress is pleated.  My second issue is that the measurements indicated I should make her a size 5.  She is swimming in the 5:  I have a safety pin on the back pulling it tighter and I really think it is too long.  I’ll probably just put it in the back of her closet for a while after I make any adjustments — it should fit next Dia de los Muertos for sure!

I really like the pictures of the dresses on the pattern, so I might attempt this again.  I’ll just consider my fabric choices a little more — and go down a size.

Now go celebrate their lives and remember your lost ones with happiness on this All Souls Day.