Thanksgiving dresses

Here are the dresses I made for Thanksgiving. I actually made them last year for the girls and they of course were huge. They look much better this year.

Here is Kaylee in her dress. To make the dress I took three different fabrics and sewed them together. Then I just hemmed the bottoms and added ribbon to the arm holes.

Here is Abby in her dress. I will probably get a few more years use out of these. I love the orange in these dresses. I usually don't get orange for the girls because it washes them out but with the green it doesn't look to bad.

Here is all of us on Thanksgiving.

Simplicity 3582 and Simplicity 2572

Here is a picture of Kaylee's Halloween costume. She was a poodle. I really don't like the way this turned out. Because it was so cold I decided to let her wear sweats and sweatshirt. I had planned to dress her in tights for both legs and arms. She also wouldn't wear the ears I made.

I used this pattern for the vest. The pattern was fairly easy but working with the fur was another story.

I used this pattern for the skirt. It once again was easy but working with the fur wasn't so easy. For the arm and leg cuffs I just cut strips of fur and sewed them together.

Simplicity 2571 and Butterick 4054

This year Abby wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake. I wanted to make her the original Strawberry Shortcake. I couldn't find a pattern for that so I used this pattern for the bloomers and hat.

This pattern was used for the under dress and apron.

Here was the finished product. I sewed green felt diamonds on the front of the apron. I also made her a red yarn wig. She didn't really like the wig.

Most people thought she was Raggedy Ann.

Halloween Pillowcase Dresses 2011

These are the dresses I made for Halloween this year.

They will probably be able to wear them again next year. I hate making dresses that are only worn once or twice.

These are the hairbows I made to go with the dress. I found black plastic spiders and glued them onto a purple bow. The girls just loved having spiders in their hair.

Simplicity 7198

Here is the pattern envelope. I made the pink shorts outfit in the middle.

I made these in 2011. As you can see I am getting better with fitting the patterns. I love how these turned out. I also have let the girls wear the shirts with long sleeve black shirts underneath with black pants. This pattern will probably be used again as it was super easy.

McCalls 6193

These are the dresses I made for Christmas 2010. I had just gone through chemo and had my surgery so I picked easy dresses. I love how they turned out.

I also made the hairbows which are rolled fabric roses.

Here is the pattern envelope. I decided not to do the pockets because I ran out of time and I have never tried pockets.

Birthday outfits

Here are the girl's birthday outfits for 2011. Abby just turned 3. This is the only good picture I have of the outfits. For these I didn't use a pattern. For the shirt I did a pillowcase dress and just cut it shorter and added two ruffles around the bottom. For the pants I just used a pair of pants that fit each girl. I added two ruffles on the bottom of the pants. For Christmas my mom bought me a ruffler foot for my sewing machine so that made the ruffles much easier! The theme of the birthday party was ponies and we actually rented a pony. I wanted the girls to look like fancy cowgirls.

$1 Dresses

These were actually thrifted pillowcases that I paid $1 for.

I made these in 2011 for Abby. She will probably get two years out of them.

These are super easy to make. Since they already have a bottom hem I just cut the fold off then cut arm holes. I then use ribbon as bias tape to cover the armholes. I love how these work. I can also make them winter dresses by adding long sleeve shirts underneath.

Simplicity 2571

Here is the pattern envelope. I made Little Bo Peep. It was a pretty easy pattern I loved making it.

This is Halloween 2010. I love how the lace pants turned out.

AJ's Bowtique pattern

Here is the pattern envelope. As you can tell it is not on of the "big four" patterns. I got this one on Etsy. It was a very easy pattern and I see many more of these dresses in some form or other.

I made the girls matching dresses using this fabric in 2009.

I love this fabric because it doesn't look like anything you see in the stores.

I used this pattern for the girls Easter dresses in 2010. I added the ruffle down the front to make it more girly! I also added a ruffle at the bottom instead of the band. I also didn't make the belt.

Simplicity 5936

Here is the pattern envelope. I made the red dress in the picture. I didn't have enough red fabric so I did the top of the dress in the same fabric as the bottom band. It was pretty easy. I didn't like how the zipper turned out but I couldn't find a zipper in the dark red color.

I made this dress for Abby in 2009. Once again it was too big so now two years later it fits her. I think now I have a better handle on pattern sizes and how to fit them.

Here is the back of the dress. As you can see the zipper doesn't really look good.

Simplicity 2709

Here is the pattern envelope. I made the green dress. I wanted to make the one with long sleeves but didn't have enough fabric.

Here is a close-up of the ruffles on the dress.

Here is the back of the dress. I wasn't sure what color zipper to put in but finally ended up with a black one.

I actually made this dress in 2009 for Abby and two years later it fits. It looks really cute with an off white shirt underneath.

Simplicity 4709

Here is a picture of the pattern envelope. I made the pink dress in the picture. I t was pretty easy. I did struggle with the neckline.

Here is Kaylee in the dress I made for Abby. I made these for Easter 2009. They were matching dresses and they of course were too big.

Here is a picture of the underdress. I love the vintage look. I wish I knew how to do smocking.

As you can tell from this picture I didn't lay the pattern right on the fabric so I ended up with two different directions of pattern on the fabric.

Lucky for me the apron covers that mistake!

Simplicity 4711

Here is the pattern envelope. I made the blue dress. It was really easy.

Here is Kaylee wearing her dress. I actually made the girls matching dresses. I didn't have enough fabric to match them exactly so I switched the colors.

Here is Abby wearing her dress. I made these in 2009 for St. Patrick's day. As you can tell two years later they fit the girls. I still haven't figured out how to fit the girls.

Here is Abby showing the "apron" part of the dress. In the pattern it looks like this is made of a more see through material. Since I am unsure how to sew this type of material, I just used cotton.

Here is the back of the dress.