Play dresses

Twenty years ago my little Amanda began her stage of refusing to wear pants. She only would wear dresses from age 3 until 1st grade. At times it was difficult with our cold Idaho weather, but warm jeans and leggings under dresses became a fashion statement at our house. I often resorted to making simple 'play dresses' for Amanda and now that she is a mother of a 3 year old herself, we have resorted to the apparent tradition of Play Dresses.

I have made these dresses for Miss H for holidays in the past...
here is the Halloween dress of 2009...


here is the autumn dress of 2010...


and more recently Fourth of July 2011.

Knowing Miss H would want to wear it everyday, I thought I had better throw a couple more together. I chose the t-shirt and she chose the fabric for the skirts. See how she is in love with The Princess and the Frog lately? By notice...I mean how dirty it is because she wore it 2 days before the yellow/pink one was finished.



All I do is get a t-shirt and 1/2 yard matching woven cotton (for size 3 - more for older girls - measure length you want and multiply by 2). I sew the 2 short ends together and then fold wrong sides together and so the rough edges are together then making the fold the hem - yay no hemming! I gather the two rough edges and sew to the bottom of the t-shirt. So easy to make a high waist or a drop waist dress. They can be embellished with ribbon, rick rack, buttons or flowers. Endless creativity! Just make it quick so the little Miss can phttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifut it on! Apparently they are super comfy, because my girls wear them out!

Also, this is a great way to reuse shirts that have stains on the lower half, as I am doing next.
Happy stitching!
~jan

I am sharing at these linkys. Thank you!!