Summer Dresses

I'm loving dresses this season.

More in particular, maxi dresses.

But they are so darn expensive, and while I don't mind dropping ridiculous amounts of money on Justice/Children's Place/Gymboree attire for my children, I have a really hard time spending money on my own clothing.

Solution....make my own!

And some for Breanna while I'm at it.

I found a really cute (and super easy) pattern for smock dresses online earlier today, so off to the fabric store Breanna and I went.

She picked out this really pretty pink floral fabric for herself.  I tried to convince her that the same pattern in teal was much prettier, but she wasn't buying it and insisted she liked the 'pink'.

So pink floral it was!

In the above picture, if you look closely you will see six blue lines.  These are the stitch lines for the elastic thread. 

After sewing thread lines, moisten them.  It removes the marker, and preps the thread to shrink more when you iron it.

Threading after ironing it.

Fold the bottom seam, pin, and stitch.

Attach straps.

Pin and sew back seam.

Let one excited little girl try on and model her new dress.

The dress actually gets a little wider at the bottom, but Breanna is holding it back with her hands.

I'm fairly certain I'm going to have to wait until she falls asleep to pry this dress off of her.

Stay tuned....I'll be making myself a similar, longer version of this dress, and a very cute tea length skirt in the next few days.