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Make Little Dresses

May 12, 2012 By crafterhours 8 Comments

You may have seen yesterday’s post about the dresses I’m making to send along with some fabric and supplies to my new friend Margaret, who is putting them together to send to little girls in Africa.  She’s collecting them through the end of May. Plenty of time to make some simple dresses. Or if you have fabric that you don’t have time to sew up, but are willing to share, we’ll take that too.

Today I’m highlighting a few suuuuper simple dress tutorials and free patterns. No buttons or zippers, since those would be nearly impossible to repair or replace in a remote village. Simple and durable is the goal. As far as sizing for this project, the finished shoulder-to-hem length can start at 16 inches and fall up to 35 inches, which means we’re starting at about a size 2.

The dresses I’m making that I showed yesterday are a version of a pillowcase dress.

Dresses made from pillowcases are perfect for a little girl. One cut across the top and a bit down each side is all that’s required, and an adjustable tie means the width is variable for any wearer. If you’d like to start with pillowcases you already or have or plan to pick up, here’s a tutorial from 402 Center Street.

If you don’t have pillowcases on hand or prefer to start with fabric but still want to keep the shape and simplicity, here’s a tutorial from Prudent Baby that starts with two main pieces of fabric with more of an A-line silhouette.

If you’d like a two-page printable instruction sheet from our fave Anna Maria Horner, click here.

via

If you have some smaller pieces of fabric to piece together, like fat quarters, you might enjoy this tutorial from The Mother Huddle.

The Mother Huddle did a similar version that includes elastic. And there’s a handy sizing chart.

And now three options that aren’t pillowcase dresses. Our favorite pattern for a peasant-style raglan-sleeved dress maybe?

Here’s one called The Good Deeds Dress, requiring less than a yard of fabric and again, no buttons or zippers. (Thanks, Jasmine!)

If you’d like to make dresses from tees (who doesn’t have extra tees lying around?) you can follow this tutorial for the tee-to-tank. We wrote it for women, but who’s to say it wouldn’t make a great little girl’s dress, too? This is, for sure, the fastest and least complicated option. To preserve the length of the tee for a dress, skip the bottom hem cut and use ribbon or strips cut from another shirt to make the drawstring. Even easier.

I hope you see an option or two you like among these. And if you have others to suggest feel free to add them in the comments.

Adrianna will pop in on Monday with one more option.

Ready to sign up– to send dresses or to send fabric that you’re not likely to use so that Margaret’s school can use that to make dresses? Sign up here.

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Filed Under: dress Tagged With: dress

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Comments

  1. Co. says

    May 12, 2012 at 3:33 pm

    Oh, i like your dresses so much.
    Corina from germany

    Reply
  2. Mayda Villar (Cuatro en la Carretera) says

    May 12, 2012 at 4:48 pm

    What a wonderful idea! Dresses are absolutely beautiful.

    Reply
  3. Erin McG says

    May 12, 2012 at 5:10 pm

    I am LOVING all of these dresses. Especially the one with the splash of color ruffle downt he middle. Do you have a store to sell any of these? I am a total novice with my sewing machine and would rather pay for one then spend 100 hours trying to figure it out.

    Reply
    • crafterhours says

      May 12, 2012 at 7:02 pm

      That’s one Adrianna made. I wish she’d sell ’em too! We do have a shop, but no ready-mades are in it yet. Maybe some day… Thanks for the compliment! Susan

      Reply
  4. Lindsay @ 402CenterStreet.blogspot.com says

    May 12, 2012 at 6:40 pm

    Thanks for sharing my tutorial! I hope people find it helpful. Thanks for taking on this cause too. Our pillowcase dresses were for girls in Africa as well. As fun as it is to sew for my girl, it was even more fun making cute little dresses for girls that you know don’t already have a closet full.

    Reply
    • crafterhours says

      May 12, 2012 at 7:04 pm

      I’m glad you made it! Ooohkay, I’ll admit, in the interest of simplicity, I was looking for a tute that didn’t involve bias tape. But yours was so well written and started with an actual pillowcase– it was too great not to include. Thanks!

      Reply
  5. Rebecca says

    May 20, 2012 at 6:52 pm

    I just wanted to say thank you for including the Good Deeds Dress pattern. It was created for the same reasons as your post and so we are happy it is being passed along to do good for others. Sorry to delete the first comment, my keyboard skips letters and it didn’t make sense.

    Reply
    • crafterhours says

      May 21, 2012 at 9:59 am

      Thanks for doing the work to make it!

      Reply

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