Baby Dresses

I've been sewing, I promise. A lot of it has been non-fun sewing (mending, repairs, etc) but for the fun stuff, some of it was not photographed. Bad on my part but I did take photos of the things I've been making my new niece. Here's two dresses I made for her, although I don't know if she will wear them before the warm weather ends.

I used the following tutorials:
Pink ice cream dress: See Kate Sew Easy Baby Dress
Cherry and gingham dress: Shwin&Shwin Summer Breeze Dress

All of the fabrics came from Joann's, the pink ice cream is from the Little Lissette collection and cherries and red gingham were found in the Keepsake Calico section (the huge wall of fabric by color).

For the pink dress I followed the directions exactly. I cut up the scraps to make bias tape for the raw edges and added the tag before sewing the bodice to the skirt. I didn't think about it until afterwards, but I could've done french seams on the skirt. I just zigzagged the edges to prevent fraying.

For the cherry and gingham I followed the directions for the bodice but added the gingham to the bottom to lengthen it. I did french seams on the skirt and used scraps for bias tape on the bodice to cover raw edges. I forgot to add a tag, so I wrote on the bias tape with a permanent fabric pen. For the hem I treated the gingham like bias tape, sewed it first to the wrong side and then stitched it on the front. The bow was made by folding two rectangles of gingham in half and sewing the edges to make a tube (I sewed at an angle on one end to get the points) then turning inside out. I made another smaller tube for the middle part. I stitched the longer pieces to the bodice with my machine but I hand stitched the middle part since I didn't want any stitches visible on the outside. Hope that makes sense. The buttons and buttonholes were done by machine, my first time using this function!