We went to the Long Grove, IL Annual Strawberry Festival a couple weeks ago and on somewhat of a whim, we entered Lucy in the festival's pageant. Before I get all the side eyes, this was a completely natural pageant with the girls wearing strawberry themed attire. No "Toddlers and Tiaras" sort of stuff, no flippers, fake hair, tanned infants, $1000 dresses, etc... although we did see some questionable parent behavior, kids downing pixie stix, and other very, very interesting things that kept us entertained during all the waiting, but I digress. We were heading to see friends and family for the weekend and decided if we had time that we would stop on the way back home to enjoy the festival and enter Lucy in the pageant, but again, only if we had time. Seeing as we would probably make time, Lucy needed strawberry themed attire. 
I had bought a fitted crib sheet with a strawberry print a couple months ago at Goodwill. Crib sheets are unreasonable expensive and I thought this one was cute and in really good shape. Well, once we decided we were entering Lucy into the strawberry pageant, it didn't stay a crib sheet for long. At about 11:30pm night before we left, the sheet to transform into a dress. I used one of my favorite little dress of Lucy's as a rough guide and cut the crib sheet into two pieces- a back and a front. Since Lucy was fast asleep when I was doing this and we had no time to spare since we were leaving the next day immediately after work, I decided it needed elastic in the back just in case it didn't fit quite right. I used the elastic corner of the sheet for the back piece. After I sewed the two pieces together, I use some red ribbon left over from another project to trim the edges and make the halter top straps. Luckily, Lucy had a pair of bloomers that would coordinate in color with the dress so I didn't have to make anything special for underneath and we already had cute shoes and a hair bow that would work.
The pageant was a hot mess. Literally. The day of the pageant was incredibly hot. Probably about 90 outside and it had to be nearing 100 degrees in the gym where it was taking place and the stage was even hotter. So I was very glad that the dress was so light weight to keep Lucy relatively cool. This was certainly a pageant for girls from all walks of life and experiences. Most of the kids were crying and running all over the place while others stood perfect. We were last in line on the stage and with a huge box goodies bags next to us- the ideal distraction for a 19 month old! She looked everywhere except at the judges during the age division line up. Between the lineup and Lucy's individual stage time, we realized that Lucy had quite the smelly diaper, but with no time to change her, she was a champ and we went back up for our quick appearance.
We did the pageant just to see what it was like. We weren't looking for her to win or anything- just something to try. We stuck around for the crowning for the same reason- just to see what would happen. They called the girls off stage one by one- giving them each their "princess" participation crown. Lucy was the last number in her age division so assuming that they go in order, I thought nothing about her not being called as others exited the stage, until I looked over and realized there was only one other girl left ... drum roll please...
Lucy is the 2012 Toddler Miss Strawberry Queen!
She also tied for Most Beautiful in her age division(18-24 months) and won Best Eyes in the 0-4yr pageant!
I don't know if we will put Lucy in more pageants. I suspect we might, but time will tell. All I know is that you can whip up a dress out of a bed sheet, throw it on a sweaty kid, and win a pageant- no super expensive dresses, hair styles, or drama needed!
