My niece Naney will be 3 in August. I am making her a dress for her birthday. The dress I made for her here is the test run. I wanted to make a practice one to check for fit. Now I have between now and August to make the real one :)
I was in line to checkout at Hancock's and saw this fabric. I actually got out of line to get this for her because it just screams happy dog and cat loving 3 year old. I bought a half yard of the animal print and the co-ordinating stripe. I didn't know what I was going to do with them, I just knew she needed something made of this fabric. I decided to use it for a test run of her birthday dress. The fabric was $8.99 yd but was half price.
I am basing it off of this pattern available free Olivia's Best Dress. I didn't do the striped skirt as they have on the website as I am working with just two fabrics. The pattern on the site is a 4-5. Naney's mom asked for her dress to be a bit bigger so who could wear it longer, so that is why I made a 4/5 even though she is not yet 3.
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| Dress front. I love these fabrics. I love the little kitties mixed with the pups. On the stripe is says woof meow and has little paw prints and fish bones mixed in. |
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| I found a ribbon at Michael's for $1 that matched so perfectly! I covered the seam lines where the flat panels met the gathers. |
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| Does that dachsund look cross eyed to you or is it just me... ? I used a decorative stitch around the neckline for some fun. Topstitching, be it in a decorative stitch or a straight stitch helps to keep the neckline in better shape when wearing. I also think that it makes sure it comes out of the dryer in the shape that it needs to be, so that cuts down on ironing. Naney's mommy is a teacher. With a two year old. Does she have time to iron ? nooooo. So the extra line of stitching makes it easier to keep the dress looking good with minimal effort. |
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| The back of the dress |
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| I used my machine and made a label. Even though the dress is a 4, I labeled it 3t because she can wear it now, at three years old. I put the year and my initials. This way if it gets passed down, you know what size it is. |
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| This is a close-up of the inside lining where it is hand slipstitched to the dress. I have taught a couple of lessons on this recently so I thought my students might like to see it- slipstitching in action! :) |
The fabrics are
Purrfect Barking Patch
I took Naney's picutre so I could come back home and look at them and see what I needed to change for her birthday dress. Sometimes that is easier because kids don't want to stand there while you look and pinch fabric and think.
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| Me: "Naney, can I take your picture?" Naney: "Yes." Me:"Without the bowl of puffs?" Naney: "No." My baby is 9 now and I had forgotten the First Rule of Toddler Land: Never let go of your snack. Ever. For any reason. |
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| Looking at these pictures I see what needs to be changed. On the next version, I will pull in the back seam at the neckline and lower the armscye. The width of the dress is fine, length can be longer, if I want. |
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| Karen, Naneys mom, had a pair of aqua leggings that match the dress perfect! My mom in law also bought a pair of white shorts and I am going to add a cuff or ruffle on the bottom edge. I have a small square of the stripe leftover. This fabric is great because she can put just about any color shirt, shorts, leggings anything underneath and they will match. |
Little ones do not like to try on clothes. Fittings are just a joke. Try to get the garment on them if you can and take pictures. Even my 9 year old gets a little whiny during fittings.
Sometimes you get this :) :
This dress is very easy to put together and went pretty fast. The real version will have many different fabrics in the skirt.
Naney seemed to really like the dress. I got this indication from the fact that she did not immediately take it off.
Me: "Naney can I have a puff?"
Naney: "Ok,"
And then she ran away.
The end.
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