Boutique Style Dress

A friend of mine wanted me to recreate a dress she saw on Etsy.  I think she plans on having her daughter wear this for her birthday party.  I was given a photo of the dress to use and the color scheme, bright blue and hot pink.   

Here were the fabric samples I picked.  I could not find a pattern for this style dress anywhere or anything similar to it that I could alter. So I began from scratch. I created a few patterns myself, and used my daughter as my model.  Let me tell you she was not thrilled with trying on the dress a million times. I started with left over fabric I had on hand and made a pink and black dress for my daughter.  They are different sizes so that was a challenge as well.  After coming up with a pattern that worked, I moved on to my friend's dress.

Here it is!!!  My daughter actually likes this one better than the one I made for her.

 A full length view with all the details.

 A close up of the monogram.

 A close- up of the fun trim at the bottom. This is my current favorite trim to use. I love the pleats. I think it adds nice weight to the bottom of the dress as well.

Here is a peak of the inside seams. I always try to interlock(similar to serging) so that the seams will hold up in the laundry.  Maybe someday I will buy a serger(that is the way store bought seams are done).  It will prevent fraying.

I am so thrilled with this dress. I was thinking of making myself a peasant style blouse similar to this. I think I might leave off the monogram for mine.  What do you think?

Matching Christmas Dresses

When my oldest was born, I decided I was going to sew all of her Easter and Christmas dresses. That has only happened a few times since I have a niece who hands all of her clothes down to my daughter. I did make my daughter and doll matching Christmas(casual) dresses.

Matching American Girl Dresses

For my daughter's birthday one year, we bought her an American Girl doll knock off. She loved this one so much, we bought her another real American Girl doll for Christmas. I always thought the matching girl and doll dresses were so cute, but expensive. I decided hey, I can definately make these myself. These are two of the matching dresses I have made so far.

I loved this cute summery dress for the girls. Check out this close up of the monogram on my daughter's dress.
The next year for her birthday, I made a new dress for my daughter and her doll Haley.

Another shot of the 2 of them together "wearing" their dresses. This is by far my favorite dress pattern. I have made a ton of dresses out of this particular pattern. Sometimes in the same fabric. It twirls really nicely, which you must admit is a bonus for any little girl.