Easy Tunic Toddler Dress (with mini tutorial)

We just celebrated having A home with us for one whole year!  I (finally!) got around to making her a new dress for her Gotcha Day.

 I used a fuchsia and orange version of Garden Party by Pillow and Maxfield for Michael Miller for the fabric.  I picked this up at my local quilt store several years ago, so it would be hard to find now.  I was looking for fabric that was bright and Indian-ish for my daughter who was still living in India at the time.  I used some of this for her blocks and her quilt, but since I had several yards I knew I wanted to make a dress out of it. 

 

Step 1: Cut out the fabric.  I used a couple of dresses she is currently wearing as pattern guides.  This is the back of the tunic so the straps are longer to come up over the shoulders.  I didn't want to have to finish the lining on the upper part of the dress so I cut it to use the selvage edge.  The lining on this side is crooked, but you can't see that on the finished dress so I left it like this.

The front panel of the tunic, again using the selvage edge for the lining.  Lining the top gives a little body to the neck and arm holes.

Step two: Sew linings to the pieces.

Make sure to cut your edges to ease the seams around curves like the neck and arm openings.

The following steps don't have pictures... I was trying to rush and finish the entire dress while A was napping!

Step 3: Turn the pieces right side out and press with iron.

Step 4: Sew the front and back pieces together along the sides.  I used French seams so I didn't have to finish anything on the inside of the dress.  I love French seams and on something like this they are so easy!

Step 5: Hem bottom of dress.  Press with iron to finish.

Step 6: Add buttons to top of dress.  I sewed buttons on the front piece and added button holes to the straps, but you could do it the other way around for a slightly different look.

Finished product!  My machine was very cooperative for this project so I was able to finish quickly, about two hours start to finish.  I think this is a record for me- sewing projects, even easy ones like this, tend to drag on for me as I am constantly ripping out seams and re-sewing. 

A loves her Gotcha Day dress!  Having the most beautiful model makes my sewing look good!!!

Fall Little Girl Jumper

Inspired by kids clothes week challenge 2010 at elsie marley I did a little sewing for D last week.

I wanted to make a little jumper for fall. This was attempt #1- no pattern, just making it up based on some other dresses I've made for her. The result? Too small abandoned project. I was going to add a band of denim at the bottom, but it was too small so I just ditched the whole thing. Attempt #2- I actually spent a whole $3.50 on a pattern and let D pick out some new fabric. My novice sewing skills made it really hard to follow the pattern, but I love the way it turned out. The only problem with this one? It's huge on her! UGH! She should be able to wear it in a year.

Knit Green Skirt

Another project with knits! I used this skirt from Old Navy as a template. I am unhappy with the hem, so I might rework it. The fabric is also a bit thinner than I remember when I bought it. It will be nice and light for this summer, though, when I will be feeling giant and hot!

Butterfly Ruffle Sleeve Dress

New dress for D... I could spend the whole summer making dresses for my daughter, but unfortunately she has plenty now. I'm going to try to make sure this is the last one. We had a couple of weddings happening in May so I made this one for all the festivities.I fell in love with this dress at Mini Boden and tried to recreate it...
I didn't want to use a pattern, so I kind of made it up along the way... the ruffles on the sleeves turned out bigger than I expected. They kind of look like flutter sleeves so I left them. The Boden dress is smocked in the back, something I can't do, so I put in a zipper to make it fit snugly on top. It is a bit of a mess- I'm sure I'll try to redo the zipper when I get motivated.D was actually excited to wear it last night to wedding number one! Often I will make something for her and then she refuses to wear it. I made a little knotted necklace out of glass beads and white ribbon- it looked really cute with the dress. I couldn't get pictures of the whole effect as we were running crazy late :( ... maybe next time she wears it.

Knit Shirt

I made a shirt... I am so proud of myself! Looking at the picture I'm sure it doesn't look too impressive, but I was expecting a bit of a disaster so this was a pleasant surprise. I haven't really worked with knits before and have read that they are hard... I thought it wasn't bad.

For the pattern I took apart a shirt from my closet that I love, but the fabric has pilled horribly. For my new shirt I used a $1 remnant of stripe knit from Walmart- I didn't want to spend too much money on this experiment. I made it extra long and to accommodate for my growing belly and long torso. I think it turned out cute! I'm definitely going to make another one to work out some kinks, maybe in a more flattering solid.