Violet's Heart Dress

Oh, Pinterest, how I love you.  I bought a precious piece of fabric for Violet with teeny tiny pink hearts at the recent 40% off sale at Textile, without having a plan as to what to do with it.

I turned to Pinterest for design ideas, scouring DIY baby dresses for "the one".  I found inspiration in this tutorial on how to make a pin tucked bib:

I love the buttons, the waist accent color, and the 3/4 sleeves.  Just darling!  It's from the CraftinessIsNotOptional blog.  Love that blog's name! Click here for the tutorial.  Isn't her baby so cute?

Anyway, her tutorial has you create a pattern from an existing dress.  Never works for me.  I tried, made a muslin of the bodice, and it was too small.  So, off to JoAnn's for me, and I bought a basic baby dress pattern.  As it's foiled me in the past, I made sure to measure Violet, and not just go by her age on the size chart.  I ended up making a 6 month size, even though she's 13 mos! (Granted she's only about 8th percentile, but still....crazy sizing).

I had to adapt the pattern to put an invisible zipper in the back instead of buttons.  Since this pleated bib continued to the back, and it already has buttons on the front, I opted for this like Craftiness's tutorial.  I also trimmed the sleeves in pink, and made a big sash for the back (I just LOVE a big fat bow on the back of a baby dress!)

I won't rehash the tutorial, but a few things I did that are not outlined:

• I added a full bodice lining.  I cut a second set of front and back pieces and sewed them together at the shoulder seams.  Then, right sides together, I stitched at the neckline (instead of doing this with the bib like the tutorial.  Here is the dress, inside out, with the lining attached at the neckline, but not yet tacked down at the waistline and zipper: 

• Next, I ironed a 5/8" fold along the bottom of the lining (at the waistline).  I pinned the lining down along the waistline and zipper.  (I also pinned around the armholes to make sure the lining was laying flat.   (Don't pin the lining too close, make sure zipper can still zip up!)

So here she is, our Little Miss Sweet Potato (nickname penned by Drake).  She was twisting the skirt back and forth when I put it on her.  How do little girls just innately know to do that?

And the back....told ya, biiiig bow!   She's doing her favorite thing right now...playing with the doorknob.  And standing on a stool.  Big girl!