Bubble Dress for Improvisational Pleating Challenge

After a busy week of work and running to soccer and baseball practices I am happy to be having a "sew in" for Mother's Day weekend. Last night I was working on hand sewn yo yos and English Paper Pieced hexagon flowers. You can see some of  my progress on those in my Instagram feed or on Facebook. (Buttons are in my sidebar.)

Today's project was this adorable little dress for my daughter. The pattern is the "Bubble Dress" pattern by An at Straight Grain. It took me about 3 1/2 hours to sew including the improv pin-tucked pleats on the bodice. The pleats were very easy. An has a link to a tutorial on them in her recent blog posts. She was a guest poster on the Birch Fabrics blog.

 Here is my little girl modelling her new dress. I am so pleased with how it turned out.
 We went outside for some better light but didn't stay out too long as it is chilly here today.
 This is the back of the dress. She was so happy with it too. She told me "I love you Mommy." That always makes it so worth it doesn't it? :)

 Here is a closer shot to show my improvisational pin tuck pleats on the bodice. I just eyeballed these and tried not to sew through too many of the polka dots.
This is the contest if you are interested. The prizes are lovely voile fabrics to sew more beautiful dresses. I will be imploring all of you to vote for me once the linky opens. There's still time to join in if you want to.