Easter Sewing Part 3

For my youngest daughter, I wanted to make a dress instead. She is little, so I had enough material.

I tried to make a pillowcase dress from this tutorial, but it was too big and because the material is stiffer than regular cotton, when I tightened the ribbons to make it fit it was then too short.

I fixed the shortness by adding a ruffle on the bottom from the white cotton. I took a 6” strip, folded it in half and ironed, then gathered it and sewed it on the bottom.

I topstitched to make it look more finished and hold the ruffle down nicely.

The armholes called for single fold bias tape in the original directions- it was my first time using single fold bias tape and I hated it. Seriously.

To make the dress fit better I took the front half of the bias tape off and made it cut in a little more so that the front is narrower than the back before I sewed the bias tape back on. The fit was much nicer, but I still hate bias tape.
The ribbon ties still did not work because of the material/she never holds still so I scrapped it and added some nice, wide straps. It still needed a little something, so I made some tiny bows out of the green grosgrain ribbon and hand stitched them on at the end of each strap.

FINALLY the fit is perfect- although it is now nothing like a pillowcase dress at all! Unfortunately, it is REALLY tight going over her head, so I may have to make the straps thinner if she ever grows some hair and it gets too hard to put on.
Just my own skirt left for tomorrow!