Casual Baby Dress

I don't have my camera so I will have a lot of posts without pictures and I apologize.  When I get it back I will try and take some pictures of them finished, but I know that doesn't help much with the process of making these things. So I'm truly sorry.

I made this using one of my old shirts that was stained! What a great way to re purpose it!

To make this I pulled out one of her dresses and set it on top of the shirt.  I cut it a bit skinner than the one I pulled out since it was a really fluffy one and I was looking for more of a T-shirt type of dress to wear with some knit pants(make sure you have seam allowance room). I cut out the basic pattern of the dress, but I didn't cut out sleeves.  I am going to make it a tank top.  Sew the side seams together(right sides of the fabric facing each other).  I used a 1/2" seam allowance. Now I didn't hem the bottom of the dress, because it followed the bottom of my shirt so there was already a seam there!  I did fold down the top about 1/4" and sewed that just to make it look a bit neater!

Next I cut out a long strip of fabric(I used this for a headband)

I then cut out two strips of fabric each about 3" long for the straps and about 1/2" wide.  This is for a little girl dress about 6 months old.  So if you are making it for a child bigger than that, adjust the strap size accordingly.  Sew the straps onto the top of the dress about 1.5" in, so there is room for the armpits! Make sure these are sewn on good.

Next I cut 2 small strips of fabric and made them into flowers to put on the beginning of the straps just to dress it up some! This is very easy to do with a hot glue gun. Just keep swirling the fabric around and fold down on occasion to give it some depth and you have a flower. I added them to the straps with hot glue, it has already been through the wash and they held up just fine.

You are done.  I will add, this was made using a knit shirt so there is plenty of stretch in it so I can simply pull it over her head without worrying about any buttons, snaps, or zippers.  So this makes it a quick and easy dress to make!