Layered A line dress

I bought some lovely 100% cotton fabric while I was in Southern India, including this pretty digital print in lilac and pink. I probably knew as I bought it which of my 4 grand-daughters would be the most keen to have this, and I also knew she would want something that would spin.

This started as an A-line dress, cutting it off at high hip level to make an A-line bodice,. Then I added two curved layers, the topmost layer being about three quarters of a circle, and the bottom one more curved than the first layer (it was more than a full circle). I had in mind the idea of the opposite of a black hole shape, I believe called a white hole. I'm not enough of a mathematician to understand the geometry, but I think it's that each of the bottom circles is wider than the one above, increasingly so. That's the sort of effect I wanted to achieve!

To design the layers, I took off the part of the A-line pattern below the bodice and applied the 'Slash and Spread' method to make it even more flared for the first layer, and then redrew and slashed and spread again to increase the flare on the bottom layer. 

 I gave the bodice part a central back seam, so that I could provide a good neck opening. As this was woven fabric, it wasn't going to pull over her head without a neck opening . Here's the back, showing that seam.

And here's the front, showing the neck facing. I designed the neck facings by drawing round the neckline and armholes of the bodice front and back patterns, and then drew a bottom hemline for the facing by eye, to give a nice curved shape.

There is just a very narrow hem on the bottom layer, about 1/4" and 1/4" turned in.

I don't have a serger / overlocker, but I had bought an overlock foot for my sewing machine, and I thought it worked quite neatly on the seam finishing.

The tab fastening (with a plastic snap fastener) was sewn in between the neck facing and the bodice.

Here's the finished dress. 

And here's the proof it spins!