Flowery Ruffle Dresses

A few months back, I had a post about my need for a daughter. I'd made a little dress, diaper cover and hat for my friends' daughter. Soon after, another cutie was born to a beautiful couple. This little one joined made an adorable three-year old a big sister.

Given that girls' clothes are such fun to make, I wanted to make them dresses as well. I'm a bit on the fence about siblings in matching clothes -- sometimes I think it's done really well and looks adorable; other times I'm not in love. I'm not trying to offend anyone (I'm sure if you do the matching thing it always turns out adorably.) As a result, I didn't want to do 100% matchy-matchy, but about 90%.

I used the same fabric as the other baby dress, because I love it and the summery vibe it gives off. I started with the 0-3 month dress. I used the same pattern as the other baby dress, but added a ruffle down the middle instead of lots of trim at the bottom.




I adore the shape of this dress and imagine that if I end up with a daughter, she will have a closet full of these little guys.

I wanted the ruffle to look really finished, so I sewed a tube, turned it and then ruffled it so it looked pretty from all directions. I'm not sure how much, if any, I've mentioned about my sewing machine, but it is about as basic as it comes - straight, zig-zag and button holes. To do the ruffles, I always sew a zig-zag and then pull a thread. It always ruffles up so nicely. Not this time. Since the fabric was thick, it was difficult (read: impossible) to pull the thread. It ended up breaking!




Then I changed the thread tension to the lowest possible setting and thankfully, it worked like a dream.




Next up was the ruffle bum diaper cover. Oh how I adore ruffle bums. Again, I made this the same as the other baby's, but I made the ruffles a bit wider this time.




I love, love, love how this little outfit turned out - I hope my friends liked it too!!



Finally was the big sister's dress. I thought a ruffle down the front would be cute for hers as well, but I though an inset ruffle would be a tad more grown-up, she just turned three after all. I found this pattern by Peel-A-Boo Pattern Shop and fell in love. It even has a key hole tie in the back!!

As a side note, I would totally recommend this shop. There are about a million cute patterns on it and the woman who runs it was extremely helpful when I ran into printing issues.

Back to the dress, because of the patterned fabric, I totally messed it up first time around. I don't know why, but when cutting the fabric I wasn't thinking at all and didn't line the front pieces up properly. I ended up with a front that looked like junk and no more fabric to cut from. Whoops!



That weekend, I went back to the fabric store, picked up a bit more and carried on with the dress, this time cutting it properly. Ahhh, much better.




The rest of the dress was pretty simple, puffy sleeves and and the cute key hole back to boot.




I am a bit curious as to how it fits, given that the neck goes up a bit. It almost looks like a Mandarin collar of sorts.




On the models, it doesn't seem so high, maybe it's one of those once-you-put-it-on situations. Then again, maybe I did something weird while cutting/sewing. I hope not.

Anyway, (although it's months late) congratulations on your beautiful baby girl!! I can't wait to meet her (and her big sister) one day. Enjoy the dresses.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone