A New Dress for Anna--Without a Pattern!

I've been really into online sewing tutorials lately.  This peasant blouse caught my eye at first and so I made one and I was happy with how it turned out (although I wished I would have made the sleeves a bit longer; I learned a lot doing this first project).

Olivia's Peasant Blouse

Then I learned that you can make a dress out of this same basic tutorial (in any size)!  Anna is our oldest so she is constantly needing new clothes as she grows older.  When she outgrows them, they are passed down to her 4 younger sisters...so, we get lots of use out of our girl clothes : )  Here is the link to the dress tutorial:

http://www.prudentbaby.com/2010/11/long-sleeve-peasant-dress-tutorial.html

Anna loves her new dress!

Here's what the back looks like.  No buttons or zippers...easy!

Close-up of the sleeves and waist

Side view

Simple, feminine, modest and comfortable...that's always what I'm looking for in a dress for my girls!
There are so many possibilities with this basic tutorial!  As you can see in the original post, the dress looks completely different.  All you do is choose the fabric, measure your child (height, neckline, waist), decide how long you want the dress and sleeves to be, follow the directions in the tutorial, and decide to gather at the waist or not.  It's that simple!  I made a fabric casing with 1/4 inch elastic at the neckline and waist.  I shirred the edges of the sleeves after hemming (2 rows).  The whole dress took me a couple of hours to make.  Give it a try, and let me know how yours turns out!  I can't wait to make another one of these with different fabric and/or smaller ones for my younger daughters (or a little dress for one of their dolls).  Happy sewing!!

-Sandi
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