Last Easter I tried to take a stab at not only making a dress for baby M but making up the pattern as well. I quickly found out that it’s a whole lot harder (for me at least) than I thought it would be. The dress was waaaay to large and had all kinds of puckers and problems. I still liked the color combo however so decided to keep it for when she was older. Cut to the present, a year later, and I just tried it on her this weekend. It’s still not perfect but I had a lot of fun seeing her romp around in it. It’s inspired me to sew more dresses for her and really hone my skills a bit more (I can use a pattern no problem, but making up my own is new territory for me).
I think it would be so fun to try and sew one simple dress (or clothing item) for her a week. Not sure if I’ll be able to keep up with it each and every week but I like the goal. My friend Meta, of One More Mushroom, is also thinking about doing it with me and I’m excited to share with all of you the results.
If you have any good patterns that you recommend I’d love to hear about them! I’m sure many of you are much more versed in this world than I am.
I love Oliver and S Bubble dress pattern for it’s versatility. I’ve added width and length the dress, left the bubble out of it and it makes a great dress. Their puppet show shorts are awesome and easy. I just ordered some chambray and this will be my third year sewing them up for my daughters. I also love their rollerskate dress (super easy and simple to wear) and their ice cream dress.
This Sally dress (http://veryshannon.com/patterns/sallydress) is great. I’ve made 4 in the last couple months. My girls love the big pockets.
You’re welcome to look at my blog and see what I’ve made for my daughters. I adore sewing for them.
cute! i can’t wait to check these out. thanks! xo Mer
Love this! It is so adorable on M.
I have no little one to sew for yet, but this seemed like a lot of awesome inspiration:
http://www.stylomagazine.com/magazine.html
I second the Oliver & S bubble dress, and the tea party dress pattern as well. The bubble dress has become our birthday dress around here, and was also the pattern used when our wee one was a pumpkin one Halloween.
Here are some must-try indie pattern designers. I kinda hate that most of them are printable PDF patterns, but they’re really awesome pieces.
http://figgys.myshopify.com/collections/sewing-patterns-1
http://gotopatterns.com/
http://www.blankslatepatterns.com/
http://shwindesigns.bigcartel.com/
http://seekatesew.bigcartel.com/
(and the last four put their patterns on sale a few times a year here: http://patternanthology.com/)
so helpful Melissa! thanks so much!
xo Mer
Have you got guest-posts? I might love to create a couple articles here.
Hi Merrilee,
I just started to sew last year, taking very simple dress patterns for my little two princesses. At the beginning I used to make them bigger, so I had plenty of oversized dresses, but at the end I found that they were delicious in children to wear big dresses. One tip, if you choose a simple pattern try to select a nice fabric, my favorites (pure linen, organic cotton or Liberty print fabrics), that makes the change! Congrats for your post. xo Alice
thanks Alice! great tips. and i agree, big and billowing can be quite wonderful. and yes, fabric plays a key part in that. 🙂 xo Mer
Mer, that dress is so beautiful in its simplicity and its imperfection! I love it! 🙂 You will find (in time) that making up patterns (imperfections and all) is so rewarding! 🙂 I like embrace the imperfections and i love my kids clothes to be little rustic/flawed and therefore recognizably handmade. Your dress is lovely, and baby girl is getting so big!
Have you heard of kids clothes week? It’s a community of kids clothes making and a great resource for patterns and tips. The next weekly challenge happens to start tomorrow. check it out here: http://blog.kidsclothesweek.com/
J’ai trouvée ton blog par chance : je ne le regrette pas du tout
!!
This is a beautiful dress. I love the circle hemline !
This is the really amazing collection for newborn babies, I need to have all this next year.