Sweet Springtime : Day 1

This is my "Sweet Springtime" peasant style dress. Cute, right? It is an intermediate level project. I'll divide it up into 5 days. Let's get started!

Day 1, gathering materials and cutting.
I made this in a size 2T, so you might need to adjust a bit for a different size. I bought 1 yard of the colored flowered fabric for the main part of the dress (but I had a bit left over, you could easily get by with 3/4 yd), and 1/2 yard of the green for the sleeves and ruffles. I also used 2 1/2 yards of jumbo rick rack (1 package).
Now for the cutting. For this part, I find it helpful to use a regular shirt that fits your child well (or is the size that you want your dress to be). My daughter is in a 24mos, but I want this dress to fit this summer, so I used a 2T shirt to help with the size.

Lay out your main fabric, folded in half like it comes off the bolt from the store. Fold your child's shirt in half and lay it up next to the foldline. With a fabric pencil (or a plain old #2) trace from the fold up around the neck hole to the shoulder, down a little below the arm hole at the shoulder, and a few inches down the side seam, then across to the fold again. I drew black lines on this photo to show you the shape that you want to trace. Once you have it drawn and it looks good, cut it out. Then use that piece to trace a second one on the fold. You will need two of these pieces, one for the front, one for the back.





Now you are going to cut a straight piece from the fold to the selvage that will make up the main part of the skirt. For my 2T, I cut this piece 13 inches long, allowing that there will be added length from the ruffle at the bottom.



Now for the green fabric! Open up this fabric all the way flat and cut along the foldline crease. We will use one half to make the ruffle at the bottom of the dress. Take that half and fold it in half (for all the teachers out there, hot dog style)so that the selvage edges are together at one side and the raw edges are together on the other side. Press with a hot iron, and cut down the foldline crease. Now do the same thing again with each of these two pieces. Fold them in half (hot dog style), press with iron, cut along foldline. Now you should have 4 strips of nearly equal size with the fabric grain going the same direction on each. (Sorry this picture is overexposed!)



With the other piece of the green fabric we are going to make the sleeves and the ruffle on the bodice. For the sleeves, you will want to cut two rectangles on the fold. Mine are about 9"x6", with the fold along the 9" side.



Align your two sleeve pieces on top of one another. Now lay your previously cut bodice piece on top of your sleeve pieces so that the tops align and the arm hole in the bodice piece meets up with the selvage side of the sleeve pieces. Trace the arm hole and cut it out of the sleeves (note that this is on the selvage, not the folded side). Leaving the pieces aligned, cut the sleeve pieces along the bottom edge of the bodice also. Here are step by step pictures:



Yay! Day 1 done! Come back tomorrow for the first part of the bodice tutorial.





Now you should have just a bit of green fabric left. Cut out two rectangular strips, mine were about 3"x10". All your fabric is cut! Here is a picture of all my pieces together, note that two of my 4 long green strips are hiding underneath the two that are showing. You should have 4 altogether.



Yay! You finished Day 1! I'll be back tomorrow with the first part of our bodice tutorial.