My Little Spotty Dotty – Machine Sewn Toddler Dress

by Lesley Oman on 15 June, 2012

 

Just look at my little Sweet Princess! That cheeky little face just makes me smile from ear to ear.

Just after Mothers’ Day I went for a trip to Ikea and spent waaay to much money in the fabric department, and to be honest, i haven’t used the fabric as much as i would have liked. When i was there my little brain was in inspiration-overtime but crafty time is limited so i haven’t been as motivated to start long projects which will take several nights/ weeks to finish.

I had an idea for a dress for Piper, but before I wanted to make that particular dress (which is going to be awesome by the way!) I thought i would throw together a simple dress first, just to see how i would get on. This way i could learn about the tricky parts, and the challenges before i start into the real, super cool, i-cant-wait-to-see-it dress project.

I used one of pipers current dresses as a guide. I simply laid it down onto a roll of paper and drew around each of the sections: the front bodice, back bodice, front skirt, back skirt, and shoulder straps; and then I added about 1cm to allow for seams and cut out the paper templates. Next I cut the various pieces of fabric using my rotary cutter, then got sewing.

I had lot of fun on this project, and learnt A LOT! – Which bits to do first, the importance of marking each piece clearly, which were the tricky bits, the best stitch to use for different sections and i even learnt that its best to keep cats out of the sewing room because they sit on EVERYthing. Every piece of fabric i reached for had either a big pile of cat hairs or simply a big bundle of cat on there! Bless my little fur baby!

This is what the dress looked like before the final touches. {Now, don’t be distracted by all the crafty products in the back ground! :-) lol}

I made a few roll up flowers for the front- you can probably see the pins holding them in place. I actually only added one in the end (the biggest one), and i added star buttons to the straps which you can probably see from the photos at the top.  I also used some bias around the bottom edge to finish the seam. I love that it gives a punch of colour for the bottom edge.

I’m so very happy with the finished product, and now i can’t wait to get started on the super cool ‘real’ project. :-)

Okay, Okay, just one more photo to melt your hearts….oh, there she is! ♥♥

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