Fishy Dress for a Toddler

Sewing for little girls is so much fun.  I made a new dress for my favorite little girl.

This isn't the first thing I've made for her.  There was the Too Cute Pink Dress and the Madeline costume, part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Her father picked out the fabric at The Calico Cat in the Kaimuki district of Honolulu.  It's this print full of sea creatures just perfect for an island girl?

For a pattern I chose this Ellie Mae Designs pattern, sold by Kwik Sew.  It has really nice detailed directions for new sewers.  

I like the sleeve ruffles from view B, but not the trim, the fabric being busy enough, so my dress is a bit of a blend of view A and view B.

All the tricky sewing in this dress is in the bodice.  Here's the wrong side of the bodice, just as it's being sewn together.  Note the extensive clipping of the neck seam.

Right side out, it looks like this:

The next step is to attach the shoulder ruffles.  They get assembled as a set before being sewing to the bodice.

The armholes are finished with bias tape.   I used purchased bias tape, but this would have been an excellent opportunity to try making my own, as I described for a different project.

The finished shoulder ruffles are very attractive.

Come back next week for a new project and more fun with a sewing machine.