Little Purple Dress

A while back, a friend asked me to make a version of a toddler dress she had bought for her daughter.  This is the dress she had:

I am very much a pattern sewer, so to make something with no pattern is always a bit of a challenge for me.  The original dress was a lycra-like fabric, so that’s what I used as well.  The main change I made in my version was the finishing of the neck and arm holes.  The original was turned and zig-zag stitched, and I wanted a more “finished” look, so I did a rolled hem on the serger.  I’m still learning to use my serger, so was quite pleased with how it turned out.

The little flower embellishments were to compliment the trim I picked for the bottom of the dress.  I couldn’t find a lace I liked well enough, so I chose this — heck, I don’t even know exactly what to call it — but it was just white ribbon with the folded fabric, and then I added the white and gold braid over top:

Here is my finished dress, with the original sample for comparison:

One thing I wish I could have done better was the gathering.  I really want to get a shirring foot for my serger, but until then, I am just doing a gathering stitch, pinning and sewing.

The final piece for this project was the matching Build-a-Bear dress my friend requested.  I literally had just enough fabric left to make this (not a scrap was left over!) and I had bought just enough trim for the big dress, so the bear dress is a simplified version of the original:

All-in-all, not too bad!  :)