April 6, 2009

Confession time...!

I sew and craft a lot, but one thing I've never done, is make either of my children any clothes!  I've made umpteen costumes for plays and parties, but no clothes.  Anyway, the other evening, for some unknown reason, I just had to make Lucy a dress.  The latest issue of Sew Hip magazine was sat on my desk, and in it, there is an 'oliver + s' popover sundress pattern.  I found some pink patterned fabric, (it's actually a bed sheet which came from a charity shop), and cut out the dress shape.  But when it came to the yoke, I spotted, out of the corner of my eye, a childs size top, which has been amongst my fabric stash for a while.  I bought it, again from a charity shop one day when I was caught short and needed some white broderie anglaise.  There was a square missing from the back, but the top part was still intact.

So, making life easy for myself, I simply stitched the dress straight to the top!  Easy peasy!, after adding two patch pockets in a different fabric, we have one pretty little dress, for a pretty little 7 year old.

Problem is now, I've caught the bug.  Adding a skirt to an existing top just makes this dressmaking lark so easy.  Rummaging through Lucy's cupboards, we then moved on to a red vest top.  Now, Lucy normally steers away from red, her school uniform is red so it's a colour she has to wear a lot, but, matched with this turquoise based print, it was a go-er!

Lucy cut out a little fabric heart which we attached with 'heatnbond', then added a blanket stitch edge and a button.

As the dress shape (I used the largest pattern size, which is for an 8 year old) was a little wider than the top, I've added two darts, and then shortened the length to compromise for the added top part.

Wonder which one she'll wear tomorrow!

20 comments:

Domestic Kat said...

Oh dear. YOu do realise that with this idea Im now going to be going and buying lots of second hand kids tops.

What a great idea. Hadnt even thought of doing something like this...also the fact that my mum bought me tons of plain white tees from Woolworths sale.

Thanks love!

The WoodLand School said...

WONDERFUL idea!!! Thanks so much for sharing (and I'm glad to hear the kid-clothes-making-bug has bitten you).

: )

Gill said...

Two very pretty dresses!! Especially love the second one!!

Carrie P. said...

Well, you are just so smart. Those dresses turned out really cute.

Becky J. said...

love the dresses. i have thinking the same way lately. i love the lazy day skirt that oliver +S has on their website. go check it out and be fore warned they are addicting too. ;)

noelle said...

hi, such lovely dresses , i like them both. i'm not too good with clothes myself ! x noelle x

Karen from Sew Many Ways... said...

These dresses are so cute. Great idea using their own tops.
~Karen~

Carrie @ Cottage Cozy said...

Very cute...how fun!

Brook said...

so cute!

ingrid said...

Mooi !
Fijne dag , groetjes Ingrid.

Dominika said...

Very pretty!! I love the red one!! The little heart is very cute :)

Annie B said...

these are gorgeous - very inventive!

French Knots said...

I tried to make my daughter a nghtie but cut the yoke too small. Will now rescue it from the rummage pile, chop the skirt off and stitch it to an old t shirt - thanks!

Fancy Elastic said...

ooh well done, very pretty... I have kids clothes buzzing round my head at the moment too, and have never gone there before... exciting stuff!

Kitty said...

They're both so pretty. I used to make my daughter a lot of dresses when she was little, but haven't made any clothes for ages. x

Gone to Earth said...

You clever thing. They look lovely. I think the blanket stitched heart though definately makes it 'yours'. She'll be wanting more now I suspect... now you've revealed your clothes making skills to her.

IdaDown said...

They look great. Could you possibly photograph the first one on a hanger as well, so we could see some more of the detail?

Unknown said...

great job on the dresses. They look so nice and Springy and comfortable.

syko kajsa said...

God work Amy! That's one of the those things I plan to do, but never get done! My favourite is the red and turquoise one!

I used to make a lot of clothes for my daughter, that's actually how I got into appliqué in the first place.

Tonya Staab said...

WOW. Gorgeous. I absolutely adore both of them. I'd love to be able to sew dresses for my little girl. One day.