Two drop-waist dresses

There's not much to them but these two little dresses will be cute and cool in the summer heat. They are designed to throw on with no fastenings, aside from a single button loop at the back neckline.

I made one up as a sample, planning to use it as an introduction to sewing children's clothes. The dress is really fast and gives a good intro to seams and gathers. It gets a bit fiddly at the exposed bias facing, but by that time, hopefully the sewing pupil will have gained enough confidence to tackle them.

As an experiment, and for a bit of a laugh, I tried out a new dress pattern, Simplicity 1584. Yes, it is a collection of dressing up costumes, but a dress is a dress, is a dress and I wanted one which would pull on over the head.  Call it View A without the sleeves. My kids were both measuring up as the size 5 bodice but I reduced the A line shape further to get more of a straight line to the hip line where I chopped it off and added a drindl skirt with small gathers and patch pockets. They are a real hit, the girls love them. Unfortunately, I got the first ones badly wrong, much too close to the centre. The fabric really shows the puncture marks from the needle, so I couldn't unpick and reposition. I made buttonholes and closed them up with buttons, so they don't look too bad. The finishes are all exposed bias facings, with the back buttonhole made by extending the facing over the edge and looping it back into a button loop. The opening is just finished by top stitching over the opening edges and a bar tack for strength.

The larger dress is made of an old sheet that is still giving up plenty of usable fabric, as long as one looks carefully for stains. Sewing with it is beyond easy, because of the grid pattern it is like sewing with graph paper! I put a false placket on the front, cut on the bias, and decorated it with two buttons that match the ones on the pockets and at the back neckline.

The fabric on the smaller one is Rashida Coleman-Hale, Making Tracks, a lovely organic cotton. Little one picked it out herself at The Village Haberdashery and she has been waiting patiently for a year for her dress. I was stalling because I realised how lovely the fabric was and I was planning to snaffle some for a top for me! Sadly, I only bought a meter of it and I owed her the dress.

I love seeing these two dresses running along the beach.

Costs:
Large: £0.00
 Fabric: reclaimed
 Buttons: stash
 Pattern: used previously
 Thread: stash
Small: £6.00
 Fabric: The Village Haberdashery, £6.00
 Pattern: used previously
 Button: reclaimed
 Thread: stash