Little Girl Dresses from Hobby Lobby Fabric

Even though Hobby Lobby is about 20 mins from me, I rarely go to the store. Working in the middle of the Garment District in NYC and online pattern sales allow me to purchase what I need without going to the brick 'n mortar stores.   

Last weekend I was out with my Mom, Daughter and the grandbabies for some birthday/late Mother's Day shopping and we found ourselves on that side of town. So we made a trip to the store. Of course I made a beeline to the fabric section, while everyone else checked out the other merchandise. And of course I found fabric to buy...

I also found elasticized yardage that I thought would make excellent dresses for the girls in pink and blue cotton with embroidered edges. 

Because Saturday was "Picture Day" for all of my Sewcation makes, I sewed the dresses up so the girls could have their pictures taken too.

The Supply List ~
1. One yard of the elasticized cotton embroidered lawn
2. Floral Organza Trim appliques purchased from the notions stash by way of Pacific Trimmings
3. 1 - 1" gold snap from M&J Trims

Construction ~
A simple seam up the back finished the body of the dress. I pinned the fabric onto the girls with the wrong side out. Then stitched it closed. I had to go in again and take deeper seams on both girls to make sure it was tight in the bodice.

With the leftover fabric, I cut straps for both girls.  I had enough to make Samantha single straps that met near the center back. For her straps, I folded the edges over and stitched down, then stitched them to the dress front and back.

For Aleena I had to make a halter strap with a snap closure because the remaining fabric wasn't long enough to make straps for her.

To finish the strap on Aleena's dress, I didn't want to fold over the edges and lose length, so I stitched a piece of white organza ribbon onto the edge to finish and strengthen the fabric for the snap. The snap was then stitched onto the straps. The weight of the snap actually worked as a stabilizer and helped hold the dress onto Aleena better.

The organza floral ribbon applique was stitched to the center of each dress to give them a little something extra and each dress was done since I didn't need to hem them.

Pictures of the girls in the dresses ~

Aleena's Pink Dress ~

Samantha's Dress ~

...and the thrill was gone...

Conclusion ~
I bought 10 yards of fabric (5 pieces) from Hobby Lobby because most of the things I liked were 50% off. At least these 2 pieces are no longer on my cutting table but headed home with the girls. 

Hopefully you can see from the pics that they really liked their dresses! Since it will be hot this week (temps in the 80s), these dresses will get worn to school. They were happy. My daughter was happy and so was I!

p.s. ~ 
Both girls and their little brother were here, so of course he had to get in on the picture taking!

...as always more later!

LGDresses - Butterick 6314

I made two of the dresses that I like the most from this pattern.

I will admit that the pattern cover influenced my version for Miss Lena but I went with a solid color for the top of the dress. I also made my first version a little big - starting with a size 4. Of course we noticed it after I'd sewn the floral embellishments to the front and hand stitched everything down.

So some info on this one ~
Fabric:
Black and white cotton pique polka dot fabric
White cotton pique fabric

Notions:
9" black invisible zipper
floral embellishment
white cotton broadcloth

Construction Info ~
Since I'd never made this dress before, I had to follow the instruction sheet. This is difficult for me because I can always think of a way that the dress should be constructed better - well at least to me! hahahahaha! The dress was originally supposed to have sleeves but I ended up turning the lining to quickly and after finishing it, just didn't want to remove the stitching. Those little girl armholes are S-M-A-L-L!

Otherwise it was an easy sew and I love how the pleats were done in the skirt. I was going to remake the dress but my daughter said to let it be. It will give Sammy room to grow into! Miss Lena will wear it with a white sweater so that solves that!

This means that Lena and Sammy now have coordinating black polka dot dresses...

The second version of this dress was made from a silk remnant pulled from the fabric collection. I used a size 2 bodice for this one and achieved a better fit. It was influenced by this dress I pinned from Pinterest.

Photo Credit:  Pop Sugar Article

Fabric:
Silk twill from the collection

Notions:
Pink Rayon bemberg to line the bodice
9" pink invisible zipper
Blush striped ribbon
Floral Embellishment
Pink rayon seam binding

Construction Info ~
I used the bodice from the pattern and then 45" of fabric cut to the dimensions of the skirt pattern piece. The pleats were added about every 5" to mimic the pleats in the inspiration dress.

The finished dress does have the sleeves added. The dress is hemmed at the same length as the black and white one. It is hand hemmed with pink rayon seam binding added to the hem. A blush pink striped ribbon and a mauve colored flower was added to the dress as an embellishment.

Since Miss Lena didn't wear this one in the fashion show I only have fitting pictures of the dress on her.

...and a group shot of the finished dress...

Conclusion ~
However, to me these were the prettiest dresses I made and I'm holding onto the pattern. It will be good to use in the years going forward since the girls are only 2 and 5. I'm sure there will be plenty more dresses being made for them in the years ahead.

I really enjoyed making all of these dresses and love that all of the materials were in the Sewing Cave. This reinforced to me why I collect things as I happen upon them because you just never know when you're going to make magic with a stored piece!

The other night I wrote a spring sewing list. I have a plan and the materials on hand so now all I have to do is sew!

...as always more later!

The Fashion Show...

...or I'd rather call it a dream deferred. *sigh* Yes, I was a little disappointed with the outcome of the fashion show.  Not because the fashion show was bad ~ actually it was a lot of fun with some amazing outfits modeled. I was a little disappointed because the main model decided NOT to model without her Mother and Sister...

Yes, she does great photos but not so great in front of a room full of people, which means that two of those pretty dresses weren't worn in the fashion show.

However, the Mother/Daughter/Daughter combinations were worn and were well received by the attendees.

First the black and white combination which consisted of a simple elastic waist maxi skirt for my daughter that she wore with a RTW white tank top, the out-of-print Vogue 8060 dress on Samantha and Butterick 6314 on Aleena worn with a furry type sweater. Miss Sammy wouldn't wear her sweater.

The other combination worn was the Vogue 8060 floral print cotton guipere lace dresses made for both Aleena and Samantha. Their mother is wearing McCalls 6886 (my go to dress for her) in a stretch white gabardine that's lined. The floral lace was used for the sleeves so the dress would coordinate with her daughter's dresses.

See Miss Lena's head down...

See Miss Sammy looking around - she even waved once!

A couple notes ~
Two year olds and four year olds make horrible fashion show models even when modeling with their mother. Even when they parade around the house showing how they would model. Miss Lena walked with her head down the entire time, the entire family was amazed because she's such a show-off everywhere else.

My daughter did say that she was happy for all of the dresses because now the girls have more church dresses. So a compromise for my disappointment! *LOL*

My closing picture is of Miss Sammy during the final fitting Friday night of her mother's dress...she loved the hat!

I've got one more post about the making of the dresses and then I'm moving onto spring sewing even though we're supposed to get snow here in the tri-state area tomorrow. I want to have some new pretties to wear when those first continuous warm spring breezes hit.

...as always more later!

LGD - Four Vogue 8060 Dresses

I kinda lost my mind making little girl dresses again this year. I started with three separate patterns ~ Vogue 8060 which is out-of-print, Butterick 6314, Butterick 5876 and ended up with five dresses for Lena and two for Sammy this time.

The Test Dress ~
At first I was going to do one post with all of the dresses, but it was too much information & too many photos so I'm breaking it down by pattern. This isn't the first dress I made but since I made four of them this will be the first post.
  

This post is about Vogue 8060. I used this pattern to make Sammy's dresses last year. The amazing thing is that a year later the pattern still fits Miss Sammy. I had to lengthen the pattern pieces and take them in an inch but other than that they still worked. Even more amazing though, is that the same pattern pieces fit Miss Lena. For her I just needed to lengthen them.

The girls with my daughter/their mother are participating in my Mom's church's fashion show. It's an annual event that occurs the Saturday before Palm Sunday and various members of the family have modeled in it over the years. My mother has asked me time and again to sew for the models but I've always resisted...that is until she asked the babies to model with their mother. 

Here is the test dress, made up to try on both girls to gauge length and if width was needed:

It's not finished because I'm thinking of cutting it to tunic length so that Miss Lena can wear it with leggings. She will not be wearing this in the fashion show.

Sammy's Black 'n White Version ~
Since the trial dress worked, I moved onto making one for Sammy using the black 'n white polka dot fabric that was previously used to make this dress for me.

This dress coordinates with one I made for Miss Lena and a maxi skirt for their mother.  It's the first mother/daughter pieces for the fashion show.  I made so many of this dress last year that sewing the new ones was a breeze. The most complicated portion of this version was adding the embellishment.

The trim was purchased last year at Expo and sadly this is the last of it. However, this time after stitching it down, I stitched single pearls to the center of each flower. It's a striking embellishment that coordinates with the flowers on Lena's dress.

The Cotton Lace Matching Dresses ~

The next coordinating outfits were made using fabric purchased in Houston. I know it's expensive fabric to use in little girl dresses but doesn't it make awesome dresses. I made a couple changes to the pattern for these dresses:

1.  They have a v-neckline instead of the regular neckline.
2.  Sammy's version has green piping. Lena's doesn't because that piping 
     was a pain to add...and I'm using a PG word to describe the experience.

3.  I added floral pins to the front of each garment.
4.  The hem of the dress is the selvege edge of the fabric.

5.  The dress is lined in a bright raspberry silk duppioni.
6.  An invisible zipper was added to the back of the dresses as a closure.

A Few More Pictures ~

Conclusion ~
These are constructed exactly like the original ones made last year. The simple shape of the dress works really well for highlighting embellishments and interesting fabrics. 

I'm holding onto this pattern because there are more dresses to be made for the little princesses in the future. Also, all of the items for these dresses and the ones in upcoming posts, came from materials already in the Sewing Cave. The only purchase was five yards of 2" wide white grosgrain ribbon which is a staple in the Cave and needed to be replaced. Thank goodness for a well stocked sewing cave!

I spent two weeks making all of these dresses and will share them with you during this week. All of the photos of Miss Lena and Miss Sammy were taken at home. I'm not sure how many good ones we will get during the fashion show. However, if we do get some great shots, I will post them to the blog because my daughter has great accessories for both girls to go with the dresses.

...as always more later!