Edwardian Garden Party Dress

I decided to take part in a Summer Sew Along for dolls. The theme is Edwardian, my favorite time period. I was in with both feet. Wren Feathers designs the patterns which are free for one day -- Thursday. After that you can buy them at her Etsy Shop.

The first pattern was an Edwardian Garden Party Dress. It was designed for a doll this is slim and 16" tall. The fabric is cotton/polyester lace that you would trim a child's dress with. She called for the lace to be 6" in width. For my doll, it had to be 8" in length. I could only find lace that was almost 6" in length. I would be doing a hack. 
I had to remove the bias tape from the top of the lightly gathered lace and iron it flat. Once done, I carefully laid the bodice pattern pieces out on the lace. When happy, I cut them out. As the instructions showed, I laid the pattern pieces out to make the bodice. I then laid out the fabric pieces to get them in the right places. The bodice is very fussy but not hard to do. I stitched them down following the scallop on the lace. 
The skirt hack came from a pattern I had. Using white cotton, I cut a piece 8" deep by 26" wide. I serged the hem and turned it up 3/8" and stitched it down. After that was done, I laid the lace onto the skirt so the shortest part of the lace came even with the hem. I spent some time centering the lace. That piece of lace was stitched in place using a zig zag stitch. The second layer was put at the top and gathered. Then the game got interesting. 
My first attempt at putting the dress together (bodice and skirt are gathered onto a waistband) was too small for Laura. I was going to leave it over night to think on but ended up taking it all apart before bedtime. 
I cut a new waistband 1" x 11" and gathered the skirt and bodice onto it. Perfect. The seams were finished and snaps added. I had what I think is a cute hack of the dress. 

I would do these different next time:

• add 1/8" to the bodice back so I have a bit more to turn under to sew the snaps onto. 
• finish the waistband by cutting two pieces of fabric 1" x 8". The second piece would sewn on to the bodice with the first piece and the other long side would be turned under 1/4"  and hand stitched to cover the raw edge for a nicer finish on the waistband. 

Next up is to make a flower crown using instruction from Dolli Diaries. Which flowers will be use?

Laura wants white roses like Charolette wore as bridesmaid at her Uncle's wedding. Only if I can find miniature ones will that happen.