Baby shower gift

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There’s a baby shower at church this weekend, so I decided to make a dress for the baby. My usual gift is a mother’s bracelet, but since I rarely see this lady wearing jewelry other than her wedding ring, I wasn’t sure that she would want a bracelet.

The patterns in my stash were too complex for the amount of time I had, but thankfully Hobby Lobby had Simplicity patterns on sale for $1.99 this week. The pattern I picked was Simplicity 3508. The dresses were simple enough that it looked perfect.

The dress was pretty easy to sew, and turned out absolutely adorable. It has bias tape edging at the neckline, and ties in the back. The sleeves have the bias tape too. The lace on the sleeves and hem is a white eyelet with a pink rickrack trim sewn into it.

Dress front

Dress back

Trim on sleeve

Hem

I don’t usually trace pattern pieces onto different paper, but did this time. I wanted to be able to make a larger size later. This was supposed to be a 1-3 month size, but it looks a bit big. I hope this little girl gets to wear it this summer, but if not, well, I tried.

This dress went together so quickly that I’ll almost definitely be making it again. Maybe for a little girl of my own some day. ;O) There are some changes I’ll make next time though.

*Lengthen the sleeves about 1/2 inch and remove the bias tape edging. That would allow a small hem on the sleeves and make adding the lace much less bulky. This looks all right, but would look better without the tape. It was probably as bulky as it was because the rickrack was sewn right into the eyelet. Or, I would make it with just the tape and without the lace. Or maybe just with plain rickrack. There are a lot of options for this little dress!

*Try removing the ties at the back of the dress and add a button or snap or something. A little pearl button might look really nice.

*Try gathering the tops of the sleeves like in one of the other views of the pattern

Overall, it was really fun to sew, and I love how it turned out. There was plenty of the lace trim left, and just enough of the fabric left that I’m already daydreaming about the projects I could make with it!