Little Dresses, Five and Six

Here are the last two Little Dresses for Africa pillowcase dresses that I am making (hallelujah!)  Just in time since I have to take them to a meeting on Wednesday where they will be collected with others and sent off to their new owners.  While making these dresses I've tried to imagine what it must be like for a little girl who may have never even had any new clothes, let alone a pretty dress, to receive one of these as a gift. 

This little yellow dress is fairly simple, with patch pockets I drew myself on a piece of paper and a bouquet of little yoyo flowers at the neck.  Here's a closer shot of those:

I used my Clover yoyo makers for this project, and they really do save time and effort when making yoyos.  The one piece of advice I will give is this; when taking your stitches around the perimeter of the yoyo, try to place your needle as close to the folded edge as possible.  This will make for a much nicer inner circle when you draw up the stitches to close the yoyo.

I've saved my favorite for last.  This dress uses some of the same pink fabric from the yellow one above.  I made a gathered strip of fabric and sewed it around the hem (I made a narrow hem along both edges before gathering, a time-consuming task which would be better accomplished, I think, using a serger and a rolled hem).  I used my ruffler attachment to gather the strip before stitching it to the dress.  The pockets are a simple rounded bottom affair with the top edge slightly gathered and then bound with the same bias binding I used to make the ties.  I added another ruffle along the neckline to tie in with the one at the hem.  You can see that better in this image:

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my Little Dresses, and I hope these posts will inspire you to make a few of your own.  They are a great little canvas for some of your creative ideas.

I've actually been sewing a little for myself recently, and in my next post I will share a dress I have made for a very special occasion.  See you next week.