Ruffled Halter Dress

In eager anticipation of summer weather, I made my daughter a summer dress. The pattern is the Ruffled Halter by Oliver + S, featured in Stitch Magazine Spring 2010 and available for free download. The pattern is actually a top, so for my dress version, I added an additional 4-5 inches of length to the bodice pieces and added a fourth ruffle. This came together quickly and is cute on my daughter. My model was not in the mood tonight, so the climbing wall will suffice as a backdrop! The fabric is Monarch in Tangerine from Valori Well's Del Hi line. The orange is a welcome addition in a closet overrun with pink and purple! A nice feature of this pattern is that the bias-cut ruffles can be left with a raw edge...quck and easy. I cut a large. My daughter has just moved out of 5T and now in a girls XS or 5. The dress is plenty big; you can see the elastic is quite scrunched along the back to fit. I left about two inches extra on the end of the elastic so the dress can grow with her.

I have not made many clothes for my daughter in the past - probably the opposite of most sewists with little girls - because it was so easy to find cute clothes for her as a baby and toddler. Now that she has moved into Girl sizes, I'm finding the styles to be less appealing....read: too "tween" for our tastes...she's still our baby :) With this in mind (and a ridiculous fabric stash staring at me) I see more little girl clothes in my future, especially ones that sew up this quickly.