My baby girl turned one last week, and a birthday girl needs a party dress (which has been sadly lacking in her wardrobe to date). I searched the blogosphere for the perfect party dress, and couldn’t find anything just right. A quick search on Pinterest uncovered the Madelyn Dress from gtz photography, but it was still too complicated for my limited sewing time. So I drafted my own pattern and the Ruffled Wraparound A-line Toddler Dress was created:
Starting with a basic bodice template for Little Miss, I drafted an A-Line dress, and then created the overlapping sections for the front. To add a touch of party, there is a ruffle along the neck line, and the armholes and neckline are finished with bias tape.
The dress has ties for the wrap section, one on the inside to prevent the dress sagging and one on the outside, made from bias tape.
The fabric is City Weekend Treetop in Candy Pink by Liesl Gibson for Oliver + S for Moda (wow , that’s a long name!), with the Cafe Dots in Candy Pink from the same range for the bias tape (and I made a lot of bias tape!). It’s an old collection so is getting hard to find. I love it though and have quite a few of the prints still in my stash.
I also made matching bloomers (from my own pattern) and a hairclip. Little Miss was all dressed up and ready to party!
Perfect for eating Teddy Bear Cake!
She looks so cute the paparazzi has started following her around:
I love how the dress turned out and will definitely be making more for Little Miss’ summer wardrobe, so a full tutorial is coming soon. I’m also tempted to produce a proper graded pattern for those not comfortable with self-drafting. I’ll have to see if I get the time for that!
What is your favourite party dress pattern/tutorial?
super sweet dress ~ the fabrics & colors adorable !
Love the dress! The ruffle was the perfect touch. The last photo with your son “taking a photo” is darling.
I love how drafting was quicker than following a pattern! Go you! Fantastic job, I look forward to the tutorial.
What a darling dress. She looks beautiful. x
Cute, cute, cute!!
This turned out very very cute! Great job!
I must say, for someone saying they have limited sewing talents, you did a beautiful job on this dress. It looks adorable on your equally adorable little girl.
Just wanted to say thank you for visiting my blog and for your nice comments.
🙂 CAS
Adorable model with an adorable dress, have added that dress to the list of things my new daughter needs!!!
Super cute dress! I’m so tempted to steal this idea.
Very cute! Did you ever post a pattern to this? I would love to make it for my “niece’s” 1st birthday next month!
I’ve actually got my second one all cut out ready to write a tutorial, but haven’t had a chance to sew it up yet. I’ll try my best to get it all done in the next week or so…