Daughter's Dresses are Finished

Early morning sewing.  I love it!  It's the best time to get anything done. I got both of Daughter's dresses finished, though it took me two separate one-hour sessions.  I really think I need to stick to this one hour a day of sewing thing.

I feel so much better already.

The pink print is a heavyweight cotton interlock from JoAnn's, the perfect weight for a winter dress.  The solid pink is just a plain jersey.

The giant flower fabric is also a pretty heavy cotton interlock.  I wasn't sure those flowers weren't so big it would look like they were wearing Daughter instead of the other way around, but it seemed to work out better than I expected.  The salmon is a cotton lycra and flimsier than the interlock, but the two seem to work well together.  They both came from Fabric.com.

The pattern is an adaptation of the Jalie twinset.  I don't really like the draft of the Jalie wrap top for little girls, so I took the twinset top pattern and redrafted the front.

I had to experiment to get the right binding length.  I walked the seamline of the neckline, cut the binding piece that length, and then stretched it gently when I sewed it to neckline.  I cut off the excess binding and subtracted that amount from the amount I started with.  I think it took me a couple of tries until I had just the right amount of binding that didn't pucker and prevented the fronts from gaping open, but it was well worth the effort.  This makes the nicest dresses and they're quick and easy.