My Little Spotty Dotty – Machine Sewn Toddler Dress

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! ♥♥