My Mom-in-law found the cutest 4th of July dresses for the grandbabies summer picture. Each year on vacation we are taking pictures of the girls in matching outfits. She couldn't find a dress that matched in Eden's size, so I made one! ( Last year I made all three outfits, this year was much easier. Hooray! :) )
I took a picture of the baby's dress, then hunted down the right fabrics. Sounds easy enough to find navy & white stars and red & white stripes, right? No, not really. They were a bit elusive but I finally found the exact matches online.
This is the baby's dress. |
I used this pattern AGAIN. I know this pattern now inside & out, backwards and forwards. I have made 5 or 6 versions of this now. It is so easy to alter and change up, each version looks different! Eden loves each version , they have been her favorite for two years now. When she grows out of this, we are going to have a crisis- what pattern will we go to for everything???
On July 4, Eden and I went to Michael's in search of ribbons to put on the straps. They had nothing- we wanted stars and stripes and crazy patriotic ribbons but it was all gone. They put it out so early and then it is all gone by the holiday. I guess you have to get your July 4 stuff around Valentines Day.
(Halloween is out right now, people. It is July. Halloween!)
We found navy ribbons and red ribbon in the regular ribbon aisle and that had to do.
Lining up the stripes was fun. I pinned at each stripe and sewed sloooooooowly. The entire bodice is topstitched at the top edge to give it more structure.
The ruffle was attached to the dress on the outside. There is about 170 inches of ruffle on the bottom edge of this dress!!! I thought it might be too much, as I was gathering it, but Eden loves it. It is her favorite part of the dress.
To look just like the babies dresses, I satin stitched the top edge of the ruffle in red thread. I used a short length zig zag and went over it like 8 times, around and around and around the ruffle loop. That took forever- maybe an hour and a half. But it felt like forever, sitting there zig zagging and zig zagging and zig zagging....
I gathered it and attached it to the bottom of the dress skirt with two rows of stitching. One row just didn't seem like it was going to hold up that insane amount of ruffle!
This is the underneath of the ruffle- I attached it to the skirt and then just zig zagged the bottom edge of the skirt to keep it from unraveling.
The bottom edge of the ruffle is a rolled hem . I used the 1/4 inch size rolled hem foot.
Here is Eden on the deck in Nag's Head.
My shy girl.
The back of the dress
On the straps, I used an heirloom stitch on my machine and a wing needle. I thought it kinda looks like fireworks !
The ribbons on the straps , meant to match the little ones dresses, actually cover up a booboo. I tried to get the straps sewn on so that the stripes went in the right order, meaning the top row of the bodice is a white stripe so the first stripe showing on the straps should have been red. Uhm.....it didn't go quite like that. After re-doing it three times after it came out crooked or on the white stripe not the red, I said something like "to heck with this" only a little less PG .
I put ribbons and a button over it and done! You can't tell underneath is all crazy crooked stripes of the wrong color. :) :) !!!!
I did make this dress about an inch big around her chest. I would like for her to get to wear it next year too. I ended up spending a good chunk of time on a dress she has worn....3 times. By making it just a tad big, she might be able to wear it three times next year!
So, how did the picture of all the babies turn out, you ask?
Here is the best picture!
Molly is the little one being held up by Eden and Naney is standing next to Eden. Aren't they adorable?
The ribbons on E's dress didn't end up in the photo but other than that- how cute is this??
It is extremely difficult getting a good shot of multiple babies. They just don't get the picture taking process. "You mean you want me to stand still and smile and look at the camera? Aunt Stacye, you're so funny!" We just wanted one picture of them all together, looking in the same-ish direction. The photo above is the winner: all the girls in one photo, looking sort of at me. I also got some cute, cute shots of the girls in their dresses looking everywhere but at me, and running in every direction!
This is my favorite photo of my baby.
My all american girl with a gorgeous summer smile!!
Happy Summer!