I seem to be drawn to relatively simple, classic patterns, whether they're for me or my little one. Let's be honest, a fancy party dress may be fun to make, but how many parties will a stay-at-home mom and baby be attending? Actually, in high school my friends and I made up reasons to wear our prom dresses to places other than prom. We did this thing called Chuck-E-Cheese Prom after every semester, because if you brought in your report card you got free tokens for A's. Yes, it IS as ridiculous as it sounds, but it was actually very sweet to have little girls come up to us and ask if we were princesses. And besides, it's not like we were running into anybody we knew at Chuck-E-Cheese.
For the Ashley Dress, I first made a wearable muslin out of my husband's old tshirts. And when I say "old" about anything my husband owns, that means he wore it twice and either didn't like the fit, or grew out of it. He lifts weights, so yes, he's still growing.
Yes, those are grenades and skeleton hands.
I actually LOVE how it turned out. The two tshirts were from...I want to say Express? So they weren't cheap. I used the bottom of the shirts for the two ruffles, which saved me from hemming them AND it looks more professional. The green buttons I got from a jar of old buttons that I bought at an antique mall.
Once I knew I liked the fit, I went ahead and ordered "real" fabrics. These are both from Girl Charlee, who has the best prices on knits that I've ever seen. Plus they're always adding new fabrics and exclusive prints. Seriously, they're awesome. When I made this version, AB was crawling a lot, so I only did one tier. I had planned to go back and add another later, but now it's cold and she has to wear pants with it regardless, so I didn't. Also, I'm lazy. The other difference in this one is that I put snaps on the shoulder instead of buttons. I only have pink and purple snaps, so when I have a good reason to use them, I do it!
Action shot with her BFF, Ruger.
I plan to make this dress over and over for her. For summer, I want to make a short-sleeved version. It doesn't take much fabric for a baby dress, and since the tiers and bodice don't necessarily have to be the same, you could even get away with using scraps in some cases (or old tshirts!).
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