Darci's Dress Up Quilt - Doll #3

So far, this is my favorite of the dress blocks that I've completed.  I've got the system down for white collars - use fusible interfacing under the fabric then fuse both those pieces to the dress.  There is still a little show through, but not nearly as noticeable as it would be without the interfacing.

I almost gave up on the ruffle!  Getting the steps to the "process" was the hard part for me.  I'm a visual learner, so I often have to actually work through steps before I discover what the problems are!  I'm also a perfectionist (darn) and insist on no unfinished edges.  I cut the ruffle twice as wide as I wanted it to be, folded it in half and ironed it.  In order to finish the short edges of the ruffle, I turned in a very scant 1/4", ironed it flat, then carefully opened up the fold and used fusible tape to secure the ends.  Then I gathered the ruffle and pinned it to the dress, right sides together, exactly as I would if making an actual dress.  (The dress already had the fusible webbing on it, and I had cut out the pattern.)  Then I attached the ruffle to the dress.  Only then did I fuse the dress with ruffle attached to the block fabric.  I used the buttonhole stitch along the purple fabric to applique so that the ruffle remains free from the background fabric.  Gives it a little dimension, I think.

There will be a total of 15 blocks.  I don't know how the heck I'm going to come up with 12 more designs!!!!  By the way, the January/February issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine features a doll dress quilt using pre-printed dress block fabric from Anna Lena.  I may have to adopt some of these embellishment ideas for future blocks.