A Quick Tip, and a Finished Dress

So I was making the dress pattern for PRP the other day, and sewed a muslin and a test dress before I got to try it on anyone.  When my oldest got home from a trip, I tried the test dress on him, since he's about the same size as the person I intend the dress for.  My husband thought it was ridiculous - but what am I supposed to do?  I can't have dress forms of all shapes and sizes around here!

So it turned out the bodice was WAY too small, and it definitely needed a back closure.  I worked on it a few more times, but I wasn't happy with it.

 I bought a couple of cheapo dress patterns to use the bodice patterns to help me out, and tada! I was able to salvage the circle skirt from the test dress I had made, once I removed the waistband.

Since my nieces are both queens of taking clothes on and off, I put snaps instead of a zipper on the back.

I added purple lace on the sleeves for a pop of color and texture, since the dress was pretty plain vanilla without it.

I think it is quite Princess and the Frog in color, and Cinderella in style.  I'll have to get some fun photos of the girl(s) wearing it.

Oh and quick sewing tip:

If you use Swedish tracing paper for your patterns, and you are like me, you misplace your sharpie often...I was in a hurry, and for about the 4th time in a row, grabbed a temporary fabric marker.
Which lasts a few hours at most, depending on the heat/humidity.  This is my tracing paper after maybe 45 minutes:

I discovered a fancy little trick with it, when it starts to fade and you still need it.  If you iron it, the marker deepens back to it's original color for a while again.  Like this:

It will still fade again, but if you need the extra time to trace it with a real marker, I just bought you a couple of hours.  Not sure what this will do for the washability of the marker, so don't try this on your project fabric.

I probably won't post daily this weekend, since we are camping for 4 days, but I'll try to at least put a couple of posts and finished projects up.  It's our spring break here next week!

UPDATE:  I got a decent photo with the dress!