Easy-sew Princess Gown

Emma loves Disney's "Beauty and the Beast", and has been begging for a "Belle dress" for several weeks now. She seems to care mainly about dress length and color, so I ignored the overall design, added long sleeves, and used an entirely different but much more comfortable fabric. I don't remember what the fabric was called at my local store, but it was something very similar to this, machine washable and dry-able (on low heat).


I used the pink fleece dress I made as a pattern, adding length to the skirt, omitting the panels, adding ties to the back, and widening the sleeves at the ends (for a dramatic flair).


Here are the pieces laid out on the table (ignore the pile of scraps by Emma's hands). There are two of each piece, for a total of six pattern pieces.




STEPS:

1. Sew edges and one end of ties and turn right side out
2. Sew shoulders together
3. Hem neckline (I used a decorative zig-zag stitch)
4. Gather sleeves
5. Attach sleeves
6. Baste in ties (or pin them in very carefully)
7. Sew edges - from end of sleeve to end of hem on each side.
8. Finish hems on arms and bottom of dress (I used the same decorative zig-zag stitch that I used on the neckline)
   

Result: A very happy toddler