A TINY dress (It’s so cute)

So, back in January, my cousin had a baby! This was extremely exciting as she is the first of my cousins to be having children and also because I GOT TO MAKE BABY CLOTHES. Disclaimer: I made these and photographed them back in January, BEFORE the baby was born so I could send them straight away, I have not waited until NOW to give a baby-gift.

So, I decided to make a baby blanket, and stitch the little girl’s name on (as soon as we knew what it was!) which I did do, but I also stumbled across this dress pattern and this nappy cover pattern from sewmuchado (seriously, if you are unaware of this blog, rectify that… NOW) So, I figured the only thing I could do would be to make an ADORABLE TINY OUTFIT. Seriously, every five minutes when I was making this I’d hold it up and look at it and squeal, because it is SO TINY.

Let’s talk about the nappy-cover first, the pattern is for ruffled fabric, which means that my version looks plainer, but I just used it as an accessory to go with the dress really. It’s made from polycotton. The hardest part of this was feeding the elastic through the TINY HOLES. That was stressful. I need a bodkin.

I’m not sure what fabric the dress itself is made from, as it was just some that I had in my stash. I chose it because a.) I wanted to make something in grey and pink (you might have noticed last week  I’m kinda nuts for that colour combo) and b.) it is the softest fabric I have to touch. It’s actually what I used here which was kind of weird as I was sewing the dress, whilst wearing the skirt. VERY CONFUSING. Anyway, it’s really soft to touch and I knew I wanted to use it, but when it came to cutting out the pieces, I discovered I DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH. Or rather, I didn’t have enough for the length without blocking it. So, I did what any sane person would do, and added a cute little frill on the bottom. ADORABLE.

The whole thing is just finished with overlocking – I didn’t hem the bottom of the frill, just overlocked it to keep it nice and light, as it’s such a dainty little dress. (awwww so cute!) And I added on a decorative ribbon for no reason other than it was cute – I used a nice wavy, slightly random preset stitch on my machine, as I didn’t feel anything angular would work well for baby clothes.

I can’t tell you how long this took – I was doing it simultaneously with finishing last week’s project AND the baby blanket (which is pale blue/grey with a pink trim too), however it was really quick, I do know that. Also, it took longer than it should have because of threading elastic through tiny holes and that being challenging, and making me swear a lot, and eventually giving it to Mr P who has more patience than I do and letting him do it for me.

I seriously can’t think about this outfit without smiling, I have found a new found love for making baby clothes – thankfully, I know a few other people who are expecting, so I can indulge this passion lots!