Crafting365: day seven: Two little dresses, for now and later

Thanks for all your encouragement on the bonnet!
As I said yesterday, I've been inspired to try a few little dresses for Esme. I've been sewing for years, but clothing always has seemed very difficult (especially the finishing) and I rarely attempt it. However, I was encouraged by a lady at the fabric counter, a couple of bloggers and some wonderful finished projects of others... so I bought an 'easy' pattern. I bought a one-year size, which will give me some time to get it right before Esme grows into them ;) Even though the pattern was 'Easy', it had several things in it that I had never done before. I learned how to gather here and how to apply single fold bias tape here.


The one-year dress

It could be better finished, that is for sure - but not bad at all. It looks like the drawing on the package. It'll be a while before Esme grows enough that I can see how it fits ;)

That being the case, I took the experiment a little further. Having seen how the other dress went together gave me more hope that I might be able to make something Esme can wear NOW. I took out my measuring tape and measured her.

Measurements taken (important):
1.) Diagonally from one shoulder to the opposite hip.
2.) Around the tummy at her thickest part
3.) Across from shoulder to shoulder
4.) Around the neck (loosely)
5.) Around the arm at the armpit (armholes, loosely)
6.)& 7.) Length from shoulder to hip and also hip to ankle

Using those measurements and the basic idea of the yoke from the other dress I drew a new pattern and ended up with this.


She really likes it, she started to squeal-whistle about it :)

Instead of a zipper there is a tab in the center back with a snap on it and a button and loop at the back neckline. The next one needs a much longer and wider skirt, and I really need to learn better finishing techniques. That might just take lots of practice. Overall I think this is a very good skill to learn and one I had been putting off for far too long :)