I LOVE buying discounted and clearance fabric. Sometimes I will buy remnant fabric at craft stores. I will simply pick out the fabric that catches my eye and then wait for inspiration to come!
This beautiful floral black and white fabric captured my attention almost immediately. It was the kind of fabric that has elastic already sewn in at the top, making it super easy to create a dress or summer shirt.
I quickly envisioned Trinity walking around in a little dress made out of this fabric.
Now you will have to bear with me here. Normally I do not use patterns and I don't know all the sewing lingo. So I'll do my best to explain how I created her dress. :-)
So I got to work...
I wanted to make this dress as simple as possible, so I will share some short cuts I used. The elastic part at the top was way too long for Trinity so I folded it in half instead of cutting the fabric again and having to hem the edge.
I created eyelets along the sides of the elastic edges so that I could thread a ribbon through. I didn't have black eyelets anywhere so we're going to pretend they are black instead. haha
I pinned the fabric in place so I could also stitch down along the edge.
This is the type of punch tool you will need to create the eyelets.
I also had some black and white polka dotted fabric. I saw a picture of another little girl's dress where someone had created a braided rope for dress straps and decided to try it. I cut three long pieces of fabric (the length will depend on the size of dress you are making...I just measured against Trinity's shoulders).
Then tie the three pieces of fabric in a knot at one end.
Here is the braided strap...
I then hemmed the edges below the eyelets.
I then measured Trinity's height and cut off the excess fabric to make the dress an appropriate length for her.
Then I hemmed once, and then twice (to give a clean look) along the bottom edge.
I then pinned and sewed together the two edges below the eyelet section to close the dress in the back.
I then marked with pins where I wanted to attach the braided straps and hand sewed the strap onto the front of the elastic section.
It wasn't finished, but I had her try it on for a preview and progress status. She liked it already!
I then sewed a black satin ribbon around the bottom edge of the skirt on the dress.
Next I wanted to add a little splash of color. So I used this pretty red velvet fabric. I cut a strip of fabric, then twisted the fabric and laid it into a coil. I then hand sewed the edges all together to create a rose.
The rose looked nice by itself but it just needed something more....
I decided to make something the rose could set on for more contrast.
I took my black and white polka dot fabric and cut a rectangle shape. I then folded in the four edges.
Then folded it in half length-wise.
I then loosely hand stitched the one edge and pulled so the fabric began to bunch up.
I sewed the edges together....
Then I folded the "cup" in half to make it a bit more shallow.
The rose looked so nice against it! Then I hand stitched the two pieces together.
I finished it off by sewing on the rose and attaching two black ribbons that hung from the rose. (Yes, my poor little girl was all sweaty in this picture. I believe it was about 90 degrees with no AC in my sewing room!)
She LOVED her flower. We went to Vacation Bible School (VBS) and she went around showing her dress to everyone telling them that Mommy made it for her and made her the flower. :-) Awe! Then sweet little Joshua asked me to make him a dress too! lol I told him little boys don't wear dresses. He then asked me to sew him a shirt and pants. Hmmmm I might just have to do that. :-)
