I made a couple more Dresses!

When I arrived back in Florida I was almost immediately asked by my two granddaughters for dresses.

Adelyn wanted a certain fabric - frogs. Hazel wanted a different fabric - rabbits.

 
 
 

I just laughed at their choices. I mean, really?

But I decided I needed to do it. So this is what I did - the process.

So…what sizes are they? It’s been a while since I’ve actually made clothing for children and the girls are different sizes.

So, I asked Jessica, their mother. Well, Hazel wears about a girl’s 16 and Adelyn, a woman’s S or M, depending. Obviously she doesn’t have a woman’s shape as the girls are only 8! I did go over and measure a few of their pertinent points, but measuring an 8 year old is as easy as giving a cat a shot. Especially since I was measuring over their current clothes.

Next question -

What style do they want these dresses? Same as last time - as I made them simple jumpers that could be worn with a t shirt or without.

Let me see if I can find some pics of that. Here’s the blog post I wrote last time. Below are the photos from 2021 already! I didn’t realize it had been so long!

Rachael did a great job for us with the photos. At that time, I made them dresses with cats and dogs. The girls were only 5 at this time.

 
 

So, this time I had no confidence at all in the patterns. I bought two different patterns, a girls’ pattern in sizes 7-14 and a different ladies’ size pattern with pretty much all sizes in it. I wanted a basic dress with a bodice and gathered skirt - no sleeves.

First, I made up a muslin of sorts - of the tops - to make sure they would fit them before I actually used the fabric of choice. It was easy to do it as I just used some old old fabric in the shop that was vintage when we got it. All I did was cut a bodice front and a back for each one and sewed the shoulder and side seams and tried them on the girls. The first muslins - or trials - no way. Didn’t fit. Start over. Both needed larger than what I made.

So I added to the patterns, fixed what I hoped would be the right amount and did it again.

This time it worked! I had what I thought would be good. My problem is that the girls are ever changing in size and I know they aren’t finished growing. I mean, obviously, right? They won’t be 9 til October!

So…I wanted to make them both kind of loose so there is room for a shirt underneath and room to grow.

Thank you, Rachael, for getting these photos!

 
 

I wanted to do this for the girls AND I wanted to remind you that you can make really cute girls’ dresses out of quilting fabric. Making these dresses was so much faster than making a quilt - it is actually quite fun!

I know there are a lot of people who swear off sewing clothes after starting to quilt, but I found it quite interesting to be able to make something up in a few hours instead of a few days or weeks!

Jessica, their mom, was thrilled with the dresses. She said she was so happy for Adelyn, especially, since it is hard to find dresses appropriate for her age when she is this size. So, getting her an age appropriate dress is great. Also - I really loved this frog fabric for a little girl’s dress! It took me by surprise but I was delighted with the end result! Actually the one that took me even more by surprise was the rabbit one. I didn’t expect to even like it much. I had thought that the frog fabric was cute from the get-go. In the end, however, both are very nice!

I ended up making a lining for the bodices - it was easier to just line the tops rather than remake the facings of the necklines and sleeves since I had had to adjust so much. Adelyn’s dress had called for facings while Hazel’s pattern used a lining for the bodice. They were different patterns, remember? However, I did use the same skirt for both.

Rachael likes to let the girls do silly poses as well. They seem to like them.

So, let’s not forget that it is quite possible to make really cute clothes for the little ones - or even for adults - out of amazing quilting fabrics!

Be sure to check out what we have in the store. For more glamorous fabrics - check out the metallics section!

We have a huge section of children’s cotton fabrics as well, with those amazing novelty fabrics! Be sure to check them out!

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Becky Petersen3 Comments