Friday, February 22, 2013

Bubble Dress in Liberty

I've 'mentioned' before how much I love sewing dresses, but it's the little baby dresses that I enjoy the most, and bubble dresses would be the favourites.

This dress wasn't on my list for February, but a friend recently had a third baby girl, and I couldn't resist sewing such a tiny dress (6 months).

The fabrics are from Liberty and probably not colours that would immediately come to mind for a baby girl. However, I had sewn dresses for my friend's two older daughters in June of last year, and decided to use these fabrics again. I suppose the dresses really are much too matchy!!!

For a little difference, I sewed on a beautiful dusky pink/raspberry stitched grosgrain ribbon from janemeans which picked up colours from both fabrics.
I found a template for a dress card, and just had to add a little stitched ribbon to that too.
 
 

The pattern is from Ottobre 6/2012#7 and it's the first time I've used it.

When deciding on patterns for baby dresses, I usually pick those that will be comfortable for the baby to wear. This baby pattern from Ottobre is the one I have used the most, here, and here though trying to tie the ribbons with a wriggly baby might be difficult!

This bubble dress pattern is ideal for baby presents and easy to put on & take off because of the length of the zipper

 

 

I generally avoid zippers on little clothes as I imagine they could be uncomfortable for a small baby. This pattern has a zipper, so I added a placket to the pattern to cover the zip on the inside.

It's a rectangular piece of fabric, about three times the width and 3 cms longer than the zip. I sewed it in, while attaching the lining to the zipper using the same method as for this Liberty dress. The placket is crooked! but at least it's on the inside! For a first attempt, it worked and should be very comfortable for the baby to wear

 

I was particularly pleased with how the ends of the ribbon were aligned at the centre back!

For the older sisters, I made some hair ties using a free pattern from Oliver+S.

 

Perhaps it's from watching too many old films, but the idea of a dress presented in a box has always appealed to me! A shoe box, lined with tissue paper, was the perfect size for this dress. The logos were covered with washi tape and I tied some more narrow stitched ribbon in a bow to add to the fun of opening it!

 

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7 comments:

  1. So sweet! Little girl's dresses are the best. There is so much opportunity to ave fun with the trimmings. This dress reminds me some of the Oliver+s dresses.

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    1. Karin, I could sew them forever! It is very similar to O+S, like a combination of their Bubble dress and Tea-Party dress!

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  2. It's a darling dress! I love that you included the hair ties for the big sisters.:)

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    1. The small sizes are just so cute, Cindy. It's always such a big change for the older ones, when there's a little baby in the house, I couldn't resist trying that O+S freebie!

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  3. Oh, it's perfect!! I love the colour combinations and the fact that the choice of fabric is a little unexpected makes it all the more beautiful. A very clever make.

    I love the idea of "presenting" in a shoe box. I can't bear to throw away shoe boxes and tend to keep them in case some use suggests itself. Well, guess what?!

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  4. Thank you Marianna! I hang onto shoe boxes, and it's the first time I thought of doing this! Thanks for stopping by :-) I love the Japanese sewing you do!

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