My daughter finally reached that stage a few months back where she wants control of her wardrobe. For her that means only dresses. No pants, shorts, rompers or even skirts if she has anything to do with it. Only dresses. I am trying to be cool about it all. But pretty much that means that she won’t wear anything that I have ever made for her. So in a stash busting escapade I made her up four quick knit dresses inspired by thief and bandit.
I can’t remember where I got the first fabric, but it’s a 4 way stretch knit that seems to have to some rayon in it. It’s probably my favorite of the 4 just because it’s more classic. The second one is made up in some fabric from Art Gallery’s Arizona line by April Rhodes. I really liked working with this knit. It is sturdier and has better recovery than the others.
I love that these dresses took about an hour to make, were mostly made up on my serger, and are comfy enough that she can wear them to the park. She has pretty much just been rotating these dresses every four days.
The top two were both sewn up in some cheap knits from fabric.com. The fabric is not the nicest and is already pilling, but the pattern is busy enough that it’s hard to notice. The left one has some pretty unfortunate pattern placement on the bodice that I still need to remedy with a pocket on one side or something. Oops.
For the pattern I just used an h & m dress that we had, but I think that the soleil dress from selvage designs is a pretty perfect match if you wanted to make your own. To keep it simple and quick I didn’t bind the edges or anything, I just turned them under a 1/4″ and topstitched with my double needle. Since I knew these would mostly be park dresses I didn’t worry about making them perfect. I also doubled the fabric for the front bodice pieces for each dress for a little extra coverage since some of the fabric was pretty thin.
So that’s it. Sometimes it’s nice to sew up some easy and practical clothes that I know will get tons of wear.
20 Comments
Your daughter is adorable! I absolutely love the dresses you made her. The fabrics are so cute!
thanks. luckily they were all from my stash. love it when i can use up that stash fabric.
A has the most stylish wardrobe ever! These are all so great!
thanks sonja.
These are fabulous! I made my toddler a knit dress for the first time earlier this year (all the rest have been woven, in various degrees of frou). Now knit dresses are simply all she will wear. I’m sick of the sight of her two now scraggly looking knit dresses. You’ve inspired me!
yes make more. you wont regret it. they get so much wear.
So cute, all of them! I love the idea of sewing easy wearing play clothes, but its so easy to get caught up in fussy details. These are so simple AND stylish.
These are so cute and I understand why your daughter loves them so. And these should be easy to make for fall…just add some tights and a shirt or turtleneck. Your daughter is adorable!
These are adorable! My daughter is in the exact same phase! I should whip up some of these 🙂
these are super great! my daughter reaches for comfy dresses the most too…and haha about that unfortunate pattern placement. oooops! 😉
These are great! So cool of you to sew for your daughter’s taste!
Love these! It almost makes me want a girl child. Almost! It’s nice to do some quick and mindless kid sewing every so often. I make dozens of shorts every year. Best collection of shorts in this house!
Wow! The apple didn’t fall far from that tree. She is a beautiful mirror image of you! What a pretty girl! And I can’t say as I blame her. I adore dresses and these are too cute. You might consider some sort of applique on the Aztec print…maybe a red or gray Zuni dancer on a black circle? I dunno…just a thought. Wonder Under to the rescue! ha ha This inspires me to get started on some dresses for my grandbaby girl. Thanks!
These are great, practical and adorable dresses! In addition to my daughter going through a skirt/dresses only phase, she also only wants pink. And I don’t have a ton of pink in my stash. It’s so hard when they get a strong opinion on their wardrobe. At least we have the boys who will wear whatever we make them, right?
I love how cute, but also practical these dresses are! Also, gotta love a girl who knows what she wants!!
Awwww…she looks so cute and what a great little selection of dresses for her!
It looks really cute on her. Give the princess what she wants, she such a doll. She’s a lucky little girl. I just returned to sewing and starting to blog about it too, you can find me here isewiknit.blogspot. com.
love all four of them, the perfect summer dresses!! could wear the same kind of dresses as well, comfy, practical but still lovely…
Haha, shouldn’t you be charging for that kind of kneldowge?!
This is the first time I have visited your blog! I really love your designs. My daughter is seven years old and I promise to sew for her this designs. Many thanks! It’s so nice!!!