Vogue 1353 as a costume, and a mermaid cake for added interest

You will be tired of seeing Vogue 1353 by now, but I promise that this is a different story. You see, my daughter has just turned 21.This is quite the important occasion in Australia, due, naturally, to the age of legal majority being set at 18 a mere 42 years ago (previously, it was 21, hence the traditional celebrations at this age). We had a family dinner at a lovely restaurant, but also, she had a fancy dress cocktail party for some of her friends. The cocktail part was extremely grown-up, but the rest of the party positively embraced frivolity, and dare I say it, reflected my own enthusiasm for my children's past birthday parties, with which I have often indulged my love of dressing up and playing games. (My inner 5 year old loves birthday parties)
 The theme was "Sea", which I thought was rather clever, as she had a pool party, held partly in the common area of her apartment building, which has a swimming pool.  She and her sister decorated their courtyard with blow up pool toys, fishing nets with cardboard cut out fish, and Chinese lanterns turned into jellyfish. It looked terrific,so naturally I do not have a single photo of it.

Now some other family members who attended this party were complete pikers. My husband and his parents claimed that they were on a sea cruise, and did not dress up at all, and my 13 year old son claimed that he was a swimmer, who had not yet changed into his togs. Pathetic!

Here is a photo of my daughters in their completely purchased costumes. (Actually I think the streamers were hand sewn on to the tu-tu). Clearly, the 21 year old on the left is a gorgeous jelly-fish, and the other fearsome character bought her costume from the children's department at Target for $5. She had to wear her own shorts though, as for some reason size 10 boy's clothing does not actually fit her very well.
I did not want to be an embarassing mother, in some outre costume, but at the same time, I wanted to make an effort to work with the theme. Originally, I was thinking of a lovely tasteful print with seashells or something similar, made into a dress that I could wear again, but as it turned out, I became completely carried away at the quilting shop.

Don't I look just like a coral reef?
I apologise to my longsuffering readers and fellow sewing enthusiasts,  it's Vogue 1353 again, this time sewn in an incredible rush within one school day. This is undoubtedly why I messed up the upper bodice pleats, sewed the zip to the wrong side when I converted the pattern to a side fastening in order to avoid pattern matching at the centre back, and also managed to sew the skirt backwards, so that it is more full at the front than at the back. Personally, I am having trouble believing that I managed to make so many mistakes in a simple dress that I had made twice already! I didn't unpick at all though :)
Despite these transgressions, and a certain related delay in leaving for Brisbane that seriously annoyed my husband, I was very pleased with my costume. It was comfortable to wear, not excessively embarrasing for my daughter, and I enjoyed being part of her theming. I might even wear it again, but maybe not to the supermarket.

I cannot resist showing you another thing that I made for the party.

 

I promise to write about a different pattern next time - or maybe some knitting......