Independence Day Dress

At the last minute, my little one decided that she "needed" a new dress for our Fourth of July parade. Since the parade is a day early this year, that didn't leave me much time.
Fortunately, I save almost everything and I still had this (my favorite western skirt that doesn't fit anymore) in my closet.

I used another dress to estimate how long it needed to be, cut off the waist, and removed two of the ruffles. I used a pattern I have for a peasant top to cut out the shape for the neck and the sleeves. I was a bit worried because the skirt was wider than my pattern, but I like it even better than the dresses I usually make from the pattern and it doesn't look too bulky at all.

I made a waist by adding elastic above the ruffles. (I made a casing with seam binding on the back side of the fabric.)

I also gathered the neckline. The sleeves were a bit shorter than the sleeve pattern because I cut them from one of the ruffles. Instead of gathering the bottom of the sleeves like I usually do, I left them as flutter sleeves and really like them with the style of the dress.

The pattern I used is Simplicity 4206. I always cut the neckline lower about 2 inches because, at least on my child, it always ends up being too high otherwise.