First Attempt At Dress-Making

I saw the sweetest dress on a little girl named Emerson at church.  When I told her Mom that I loved the dress, she told me she MADE it.  I was seriously impressed!  It wasn't an elaborate pattern or anything, but was a sweet pink print with Parisian buildings on it, with brown accents.  It was trimmed with brown-colored ball trim and brown ribbon served as the straps which tied at the shoulders.  It was adorable.  It might help that Emerson herself is adorable, completely outgoing and 100% full of sweetness.  :)  I later found out the dress is what is called a "pillowcase" dress.  Very simple in pattern but you can jazz it up as much as you would like. 

I then set out to find just the right material.  I was going to make a similar dress for Ava.  Nevermind that I don't know how to use my sewing machine my Grandmother gave me as a college graduation present...SIX. YEARS. EARLIER.  (Okay, so it might not have helped my confidence level when she mentioned: "Just DO NOT break the bobbin.  Do anything, but DON'T BREAK THE BOBBIN." Umm... yeah, so what is a bobbin?) 

My friend Amy is a fantastic seamstress, sewing many of her own costumes for shows, etc.  I enlisted her help.  She was just the right person to ask!   

I bought a very simple pattern.  I headed over to Amy's house for a night of sewing.  We ended-up altering the dress somewhat once we saw how "A-line" the dress was going to be...It looked like it would end-up too wide for Ava, so we cut-out some of the material.  I LOVED how it turned-out!   I'm completely a fan of most things "retro", so I loved the "Dick and Jane" type material I found.  I went for green accents, which I thought wouldn't be the most obvious color choice, but would be surprisingly cute.  They really seemed to compliment each other well.  We lined the dress, too, to give it some weight.  I made the ribbon straps fairly long, so Ava will be able to wear the dress for a long time.

Amy actually made a similar dress for our friend Melissa's little girl Alana, after seeing how easy this dress was to make.  Her dress was adorable, too!

I don't plan on becoming a seamstress, but thought this was the perfect dress on which to learn.  Thanks to Amy for donating her time, patience, meticulous sewing skills and instruction to me. 

And p.s. - Grandmother, I DIDN'T break the bobbin!  ;-)

Peace, love and oh sew cute,
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam