Leisl's Dancing Dress

I can remember always longing for Leisl's pink dress when I watched the Sound of Music as a little girl. I hadn't seen the Sound of Music in a long time, so we watched it a few nights ago. That old desire for Leisl's dress turned into a need. Edelweiss patterns has a pattern for Leisl's dress and several others, (you can see it here), but I wanted to see what I could do without a pattern before I bought one. I found a blue chiffon curtain sash in our fabric stash, grabbed my dress form, scissors and a measuring tape and got to work.

I wish I took pictures of each step, but in the excitement of the moment,
pictures were not a high priority. 

It is far from perfect, but I like it anyway :).

Now I'm going to try to write how I made this little dress.

1) I made the lining by cutting a rectangle for the front, and two for the back. I put darts in the front to make it fit, and sewed the pieces together at the side seams.

2) I made the yokes buy cutting two pieces for the front yoke (cut on the fold) and four pieces for the back yokes. I sewed one front yoke to the two back yokes, and again with the other front yoke and back yokes, then I laid them right sides together and and stitched around the neckline.

3) I cut a long piece of chiffon for the front, and gathered it at the top.

4) I laid the front on top of the lining front with the right side UP, then laid the yoke on face down on top of that. I stitched across the top, and folded the yoke up. (Does that make any sense?)

5) I gathered the front and stitched it down.

6) I cut two back pieces and gathered them across the top.

7) I pinned the yoke to the lining where I wanted it to be, then took the back piece, and laid it on UPSIDE DOWN, lining the top edge below the yoke, with the end going up, 

and stitched across the top, then folded it down. 

8) I gathered the back and stitched it down.

9) I cut out sleeves {rectangles with curved tops :)} , gathered them, put elastic around the elbow,

then sewed them into the arm hole.

10) I cut out a full circle of chiffon, and one of cotton lining with a diameter 30", then cut a slit all the way up the back of the circle, and one at the center for the waistline.

11) I sewed the skirt to the dress at the waistline.

12) I basted the back closed, and sewed the back of the skirt closed.

13) I sewed in a centered zipper, then took out the basting stitches.

14) Hem, and it's done!

I hope that made sense!

Here are my sketches for the dress.