2nd try at the fancy dress....

 So you may remember the previous adventure of the multi-fabric, non-matching dress, otherwise known as the Ava Knot Dress, Part I.  I had wanted to make a second dress for my niece, but this time in a combination that did not hurt my eyes.  And when I saw this green ladybug fabric at JAF, it jumped into my cart and declared that it needed to become an adorable little girl dress.  So off we went for coordinating red prints (note that I did not actually match the two red prints - in the spirit of "boutique" clothing) and called it good.  I decided to skip the apron, on the grounds that I bought the fabrics and can make this any way I want, and I didn't want the apron. :)  But I did see some cute ladybug ribbon on a later trip that I just had to buy for this dress.  It doesn't exactly match, but it's close enough, especially since it is not applied directly to the ladybug fabric.

This time I made the 24m size, in hopes that it will fit later.  (The dress was actually sent to them in August, so plenty of time to still wear it during the warm weather.  Plus it can be layered for more use.)

The instructions have you turn up the bottom hem 0.5 inches, then another 0.5 inches, and stitch.  The trim pieces are applied separately to the skirt pieces, and they are sewn together when the side seams are sewn.  I would rather stitch the trim pieces together, turn up and stitch the hem, and then stitch the trim to the skirt once the side seams are sewn.  And I prefer to do a one-inch hem by turning up 3/8 inch, then 5/8 inch, then stitch it in place at 0.5 inches.  In this case, because of applying the ribbon, I sewed the trim pieces together on one side, then turned up the hem as I described.  I then used my stitching line as a guide to pin and stitch down the ribbon, lining up the lower edge with the stitching line.  After I stitched that edge down, I then carefully stitched the upper edge.  (Then I realized I'd stitched it on upside down, and I had to unpick it all and start over.  But it was lined up great!)  Once I had the ribbon on, I sewed the other side of the trim together, matching the ribbon edges carefully, and then I stitched the trim onto the skirt.

This is a better picture of how the colors look in real life.  I really love how it turned out, and I hope that my sister-in-law loves it, too!  Hopefully I'll get a pic or two of my niece wearing it soon....

A baby dress!

My sister-in-law sent me a link to a baby/toddler dress probably a year ago and asked if I thought I could make something like that.  I said, sure, probably, let me look for some patterns I can Franken-pattern together to get it.  Then a few months later, I saw The Ava Knot Dress pattern by Pink Poodle Bows.  It was almost exactly like the dress she had wanted!  So I downloaded the pattern, but since I am multi-fabric-matching-impaired, I gave her the yardage requirements and told her to buy the fabric she wanted and send it to me.  Here is the result:

Not anything I would ever have put together, but it was what my SIL wanted, and she is thrilled.  When I made this, my niece was about 16 months old, and I used the 18 month size.  The feedback I got is that it fits her perfectly right now, but the bodice will likely be too small in the fall.  So next dress will be 24 month size, I think.

This was a fairly quick sew.  There are no pattern "pieces" - just cutting measurements.  (There is a template to cut the armholes out of the bodice pieces.)  Everything fit together perfectly, and the instructions were easy to read and follow.  I did get confused on one spot, but that's only because I misread the directions.  I emailed the designer for clarification and was surprised to get an email back within an hour!

Like I said, my SIL was thrilled with the dress, so I will definitely make more.  (The next version is one that I bought fabric for, so it will be more sedate.)  I've told her already that I'm happy to make whatever she wants - but she needs to get the fabric, because this multi-fabric-matching is not my style. :)