Get Creative 4006: Little Girls' Dresses

Using the same pattern as I did for the little girl's top/pinafore I made previously, I went ahead with my plans of making a some dresses for Princess S and Little Miss M.

Being housebound for a week with the flu gave me time to cut up the fabric and make up the dresses, but I must say they were a real effort seeing as even picking up the scissors was super tiring in the state that I was in.

After sifting through my stash I decided the dresses were both going to have polka dots. I started with the smaller dress first for Little Miss M - the top/pinafore I previously made for her using the 6 month old sizing fits her perfectly right now, so I decided that since winter is approaching I'd be better off making it for a 1 year old so it'll be ready for her to wear when the weather warms up again (or when she moves back to the tropics, whichever comes first). Instead of the typical pink combinations that lots of little girls wear, I thought I'd make it up in a bold blue/brown fabric.


I then moved on to the 4 year old version for Princess S in her favourite colour pink, accented with a variety of gelati coloured spots.


Here's my rundown:

Material
I used 100% quilting cotton with polka dots for both dresses. The pattern called for ric-rac to edge the dresses, but I went with no notions (mainly due to being unable to leave the house to go shopping!)
Plain white/pale blue thread was used for the stitching, depending on the dress colour.

Pattern (Get Creative 4006 : View B)
This view of the pattern was fairly easy to follow, with the only exception being that some of the steps were misnumbered in the instructions. I finished the blue dress as per instructions, but I have to say that I really didn't like having to finish off the sleeves with bias-binding. I made the binding myself, but ended up doing a long and messy job of it. I probably need more practice with this, but to speed things up with the pink dress, I omitted the binding and instead zig-zagged the armholes and finished them with a narrow hem. I also omitted the ric-rac as mentioned above.
Note the inside and outside of the armhole, done my way
(excuse the slightly crooked stitching *ahem*)
Would I do it again?
After making this up twice, I'm a lot more confident in what areas of the dress I would change if I made it up again (i.e. changing the armhole finishings). I'm sure you will all agree that making something up the second time around can make a big difference in how long it takes and what it ends up looking like - unfortunately for me I tend to get bored of making the same thing over and over - but in this case I'll probably try this again with the ric-rac trim to see how it looks if it looks good on the girls.

***EDIT*** (31/03/10)
The dress looks pretty good on, but apparently it is a little hard to get on and off. I think the next one may need a zip added.
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