Well, first let me say Howdy! I’m Leigh over from MyLifeBlessed. When Connie asked if anyone was interested in guest posting while she is at Blissdom, I jumped at the chance. I just love Connie. She’s so sweet.
Well, I’m here to give you a quick and easy tutorial to a cute little dress for your little girl.
1.) Here’s what you will need:
Measure said little girl around the chest. That is how many inches of the main fabric you will need wide and long. (my girl is 22 inches so I got 22 inches of fabric and 22 inches long)
22 “ of Vday main fabric
¼ Yard of Coordinating fabric.
1 spool of coordinating ribbon
2 yards of pom pom trim
a Heart cut out of cardstock
matching thread ( I used white, but was going to use pink)
2. & 3) First lay out your main fabric the dress will be made out of. (most fabric will be 44/45 inches.) You should be able to just cut it in half and have your two pieces you will need.
With the wrong side facing you, on the sides of the fabric you need to fold over twice and sew a straight stitch. (this will prevent fraying) Make sure you back stitch at the beginning and end of each stitch.
Do this for all four sides.
4.) Then lay out the fabric so what will be the top is at the top with the wrong side facing up. Then get your ribbon and measure it 10 inches past the fabric on both sides. Do this so you have 2 ribbons, one for the front and one for the back.
5.) Place the ribbon on the fabric centered and fold the fabric over once and pin. (do this for both pieces of fabric) Then sew a straight stitch on the end of each side of the ribbon to prevent fraying.
6.) Turn your fabric Right side up and then sew a small stitch over the center of where your ribbon is. This will keep it in place and prevent it from coming out.
7.) This is what your fabric should look like now.
8.) Now put the 2 pieces of fabric together with the right sides facing each other. Now you have to leave room for arm holes. So measure down from the top 1/3 of the fabric. (my fabric was 22inches so I went down an even 7 inches). Then I pinned from there down, and sewed another straight stitch.
9.) Double fold the bottom hem, then pin and sew. Then turn right side out and pin and sew the pom pom trim over the stitch you just sewed. (This seems to be the easiest for beginners, but I just pinned and did both in one step. Do whatever is easier for you and your sewing machine)
Now, get your Coordinating fabric and trace and then cut out a heart shape. I didn’t have any stabilizer at the moment, and always love my stiffener for quick projects.
I just spread some of it on the heart and let it dry 5 minutes. This will stiffen it a tad and helps me with sewing it and looks better on the dress.
10.) Now, center the heart on the dress and pin in a couple of places just to hold it.
Now I prefer for my appliqués to look stitched on purpose so I use my double zig zag stitch. I start from the bottom of my heart and just stitch around the outside.
11.) YOU ARE DONE! I bet they all look so cute! The best thing about this dress is that it will probably fit your daughter for years. They will just turn into a shirt when they get taller. I would love to see some of your dresses! Please share.
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Adorable! Thanks for the idea.
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Thanks for the directions. I have seen little girls with these on and loved them. I am stocking up on my ideas for when I am blessed with granddaughters. I saw little ones in these at Disney in the fall and the dresses were made out of red w/white polka dots fabric like Minnie Mouse!
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Oh, I just found this and I don’t have any Vday appropriate fabric on hand. Wonder if I can find some on sale and whip this together today…. I think I’m going to try!!!
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Thank you for such a great tutorial. I have had my material for months but never found the time to sit down and try one of these cute dresses. I made two last week for a first birthday gift. The dresses were so cute and I even had several people request to see if I would make dresses for their children. I am not ready to make them for anyone else but I was flattered by the requests.
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