The Easiest Baby Dress You Can Make

In my last post, I was talking about how a baby blanket got away from me and turned into making a baby blanket, two taggie squares, a taggie blanket and a gown.

You thought it ended there, but it really didn't.

Because while buying all of that fabric, I stumbled upon this pattern.*

I don't really do clothes very well, but everyone says this is THE easiest baby dress to make. So I bought the pattern and some fabric.

I actually made this green one first. With any sewing project, the first one is the one you learn the most from. The green dress taught me to do all embellishments before sewing on the facing. It doesn't show on the front at all, but inside, you can see a lot of unsightly stitches that might also rub against baby's sensitive skin.

I also learned that this pattern does two things I really don't like. First of all, the whole reason this dress is so easy is that it can be made in two pieces... the shape of the dress x 2 sewn together right sides facing and then turned. But in the pattern, they have you cutting the sides separately, making six pieces, and adding four seams for very little reason.

Also, I learned that I should read more carefully. I wanted a 3-6 dress for a January baby. That way it could be worn in spring into the summer. The package says that the small fits 6 month and I thought the small would be 3 month. Not a big deal, as a size 6-9 month dress would still be summer for a January baby. Only the dress I made following the pattern for a "small" was big enough to fit an average size nine month old.

So I got out one of my daughter's dresses of this type and made my own pattern.

I also tried some different embellishments.

I made the flower by sewing the petals (two pieces of petal shaped fabric sewn together and turned) separately and then making a circle for the middle the same way. I then sewed them all down by going around each part of the flower with a simple stitch.

Here is my first attempt with rick rack. I got the idea of sewing on the rick rack to the top and then sewing the facing and turning it all from one of my daughters dresses. That way the rick rack sticks out the ends and has a different kind of look than if you sewed it on the top.

This one has the same ribbon flower as the first one, only this time I did all of the sewing (including sewing the tops of each loop down to keep the flower from "wilting" before attaching the facing).


Finally, to give an idea of how fancy the outfits can be:

I did buy the bloomers at a boutique, but they go with all three dresses and it was so much easier to buy the bloomers than learn how to sew them. The headband and fancy flower are both from Hobby Lobby. The flower was $3.99 but the headband was only 99 cents, so still significantly cheaper than buying the same sort of thing from a specialty shop and the flower is just a clip, so you can change out the clip on the same headband or move the clip to another headband.



*By "stumbled upon" I do actually mean "went with the express purpose of finding" -- but I really didn't think I would be making so many dresses when I found the pattern. They were just SO easy and fun to do.