I am in awe of all the awesome and creative free sewing (and other crafts!) patterns there are on the internet, particularly for baby and kids clothes. I've already taken advantage of many of them (Geranium dress, baby bloomers, quilted toddler peacoat, Junebug dress...), but even then I have barely scratched the surface. Plus, I learn about another cool blog or website everyday... score for me!
Recently I discovered a kick-ass, new-to-me blog, StraightGrain. I love all of the cute and modern patterns and tutorials on this blog. Here is an adorable little dress I made for Zoe using one of those free patterns: the peplum bubble dress. I love the simple bodice and puffy little skirt (see below how the bubble look is created by attaching a curved lining to a larger, rectangle outer layer) ... I think it would be sweet with some little leggings. I highly recommend this pattern! The dress is quite easy to make and came together really quickly.
My peplum bubble dress is made from some inexpensive teal and hot pink machine-printed batik that I bought here in Jakarta (I guess it's not true batik since it's not wax resist, but it's a batik-themed print).
I totally chickened out on putting in a zipper. Soon. Soon. I have an excuse, though, in that I didn't have the right colored zipper on hand, but I did have these great hot pink buttons that I bought last time I was in Bangkok. To add buttons to the dress, I just added about 1.5 inches to the inside of each back piece, folded each side under until I got sufficient overlap, basted the flaps down,old and then added buttonholes. Also, I used pre-packaged bias tape rather than make my own for the neckline and arm holes. I used the single fold kind, so it is tucked to the inside, rather than visible on the outside.
