Summer Fun Dress: A Tutorial from Veronica at sewVery!

I'm very excited to introduce you to Veronica, from sewVery.  Veronica is a very creative and talented seamstress who has so much to share with you on her blog.  You will be inspired!  Today she is showing us how to make a super cute little summer dress for sizes 2T - 6 that you can sew in about an hour!  Read all the details on this post and then click over to her blog for the tutorial.  Sew Cute!

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Hi, everyone!  I'm Veronica, and I'm guest posting from my little blog called sewVery where I share all the clothes I make my three-year-old daughter along with various other sewing and crafty projects. I rediscovered sewing only a year ago, but now I can't go a day without thinking of my next project!

A few months ago, not long after I started blogging, I found Emmaline Bags where I entered a contest and won Janelle's Emmaline Bag Pattern. Soon after, I emailed her with a few questions about purse hardware, and the next thing you know, we were chatting about other things as well.  She is a super sweet person with a great personality, and her purse designs and patterns are the best around!  I was ecstatic when she invited me to guest post on her blog today!

Then panic set in momentarily!  Ok, not really, but I had to come up with a project, and hopefully a good one at that!  It's still unbelievably hot right now, so I thought I would put together a fun, simple little dress for my daughter, Ella, to play in for the rest of the summer and share it with you. Then I had to think up a name for the dress, and Summer Fun Dress popped into my head!  Perfect!

First, I labored for almost an hour on which fabrics to use and in which combination.  I think it sometimes takes me as long to pick out the fabrics as it does to make the outfit!  I can't possibly be the only person that does this, can I?

I've been hoarding my favorite fabrics (don't you?) and decided to finally use some of my pieces from Amy Butler's Lark collection.  I haven't used any since I made my Emmaline Bag earlier this summer. You can read more about it here.

It's pretty wild, don't you think?  But I have absolutely loved using it, even when it doesn't go with a thing I'm wearing!

I only had a half yard of the main fabric I wanted to use, which ended up not being quite long enough for the Fun Dress.  Since I really wanted to make this a dress and not a top/tunic, I ended up adding some of the leftover fabric I used for my Emmaline Bag to the bottom of the dress.  I think it was meant to be!

I also wanted to add a decorative touch to this simple dress, so I added a vertical piece of coordinating fabric to the main panel and lined its seams with green ric rac.  I recently read a little trick on how to use a washable glue stick to easily sew on ric rac and other trims.  This was the second time I used that tip, and it worked like a dream!

Instead of just centering the decorative strip in the front of the dress, I changed it up a bit and rotated it to the side.  The way the dress is sewn together, there are no side seams, so you can place the decorative strip pretty much wherever you desire!

This dress apparently inspired my daughter to do some crazy dance moves (or maybe it was the ice cream that did it)!

Ella had so much fun wearing this dress that she wore it two days in a row! How's that for satisfaction?!

Maybe I should make another one for her, but this time change it up a bit. I'm sure Ella would be game for helping me pick out the fabrics.  She enjoys shopping for fabric almost as much as I do!

You can make endless variations of this dress by embellishing it in a variety of ways.  For instance, you could make it with two decorative strips instead of one, lengthen the main fabric and leave off the hem strip, add another set of shoulder straps so it ties on the shoulders and not around the neck, leave off the ruffle strip or add some trim to the edge of the ruffle.  I could go on and on!  All you need is imagination!

Want to make your own version of the Summer Fun Dress?  Then you're in luck!  I've put together  the full tutorial for making the Summer Fun Dress in sizes 2T - 6 here on my blog, sewVery.  This is where you'll also find details on how to use a glue stick to easily attach trims for sewing.

This dress is so simple to put together and only takes about an hour to sew. I hope you'll give it a try. If you do, please let me know that you did.  I'd love to hear from you at sewvery(at)gmail(dot)com.

Thanks, Janelle, sewVery much for inviting me to visit today!  This was fun!

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Thank you so much Veronica!   I feel lucky to have both you and Ella on my blog today.  Ella is so adorable and makes the perfect little model.  Cute! 

I hope you will all try this easy to sew pattern for your little one or share it with someone you know that would love it too.  It's too easy to pass by and there are so many things you could do with it!

Thank you for stopping by,