Oh Snap! Snappy Baby Dress

I am so excited this dress turned out. Remember my very first post? This is the kind of neckline I was trying to accomplish back then.  And now three months later, I have figured it out! All thanks can be given, to my all time favorite blog, Prudent Baby, for showing me how.

I could not get a good picture of Penelope in the dress, but you can imagine the cutest of the front. I made it pretty short, because she has a hard time crawling in long dresses. I am hoping I made the arm holes big enough, that she can wear it over a long sleeved shirt this fall.





















Here she is mowing the lawn with her Papa in her new dress. She was not too sure about the lawn mower. She had this scowl on her face the whole time. She would smile at me for a second, when the mower came close to me and she was able to see me, but as soon as she remembered she was on a mower, she went right back to her scowl.

The fabric is Amy Butler. My very first designer fabric purchase! It's from her LOVE collection.

Let's just call this a learning experience

So, I bought a pattern for the first time in my life. The bottom picture is what the dress was supposed to look like.

As you can see, I stopped following the pattern after I cut out the dress pieces. I couldn't understand it. Not sure if its because I am just so exhausted that my brain functions as if I am drunk or if I am a visual learner and need someone to show me how to do it. I am just glad the damn thing is done. I think I will stick to pillow case dresses after this. But then again I just found this site: www.littlebeanshop.com and was lusting over all the little dresses and have already decided to try a halter dress next for Miss P.

During this project, I did manage to learn how to do a few new sewing skills: a French seam, and then was told that since I fully lined it and the fabric was thick, I didn't need to do it (thanks, Julie!), so the second side didn't get one. A basting stitch, which really pissed me off. Apparently, my machine only goes to a 4 as its longest stitch, so it made the ruffle super tight. I also think that because it was fully lined and a thick fabric it made it more difficult as well. I ended up doing a hand basting stitch for the front and it worked much better. For the third thing I learned, I am not even sure what its called. I think its called bias tape? Anyone know?

I really enjoyed making the little bow for the front, and have visions of many different fabrics I can make them in, I think I will make a few for myself next time too! I got the free tutorial here, from my favorite new website: http://www.prudentbaby.com/2010/02/diy-fabric-flower-hair-clip.html

Oh, and the purple fabric is organic! I found it at Joanne Fabrics a couple of months ago. They have all of four bolts, white, black, brown and this purple.

As long as you don't look at my stitches real close, its not half bad. Especially, considering the only sewing skills I am going off are from a 7th grade Home Ec class.