"Ocean Blue" dress

I can finally show you the dress I have been making for my seven-year-old niece. It's ready and on its way to its future owner. Now I am so curious to find how the dress fits her. I wouldn't be surprised if it is a bit large for her, but I was so concerned not to be too small, that I prefered to be on the safe side and make it larger.
For the dress I chose deep blue fabric, which I found very easy to work with. It is a good weight for a dress and drapes well. When I bought the fabric last summer I was told that it was cotton, but it looks to me more like polycotton.
This dress is one of those projects which I wasn't sure how they would end up looking. I didn't have much time to make the dress, so I decided to construct the bodices, the skirt and the sleeves and once the dress was ready to choose a decorative detail. I wanted to add a decorative detail because the dress would be made with single coloured fabric and that was a way to make it look more interesting.

I had a few options on my mind. The first option was to make a big fabric flower for the front bodice, the second option was to add some pleats on the front and the third option was to add either trimming or applique to the skirt. As you can see I chose the pleates in the end.

I opted for a back opening in order to make the dress easier to put on and also to add more effect.
You have probably noticed that all the buttons are different and the reason  is that I didn't have four buttons of this size that were the same. I actually like the look of them on the back.