Tiny Tulip and Pattern Review

Rose loves unicorns and rainbows type of fabric, so it was clear that I'd be using this fabric she had chosen for her Christmas dress this year. But we need sleeves for our Christmas dresses, and so few patterns have sleeves, especially long sleeves. Then I found P4P's free Tiny Tulip T shirt, which has a long sleeve option. I thought that would be pretty easy to convert into a dress with a couple of layers in the skirt. She loves it, and has worn it at every available opportunity since (until she got her new birthday dress - but she still loves this one).

To find out how I got on with the pattern, and for the links to it, read on.

Sweet Rose dresses - pattern review

One of my new favourite free patterns is the Sweet Rose Dress from Life Sew Savory. This was so easy to cut out and make up, even with the more challenging fabrics I'd chosen. It would be a dream in a more normal cotton woven, as made on the Life Sew Savory web site, and I'll definitely make more. Here are my first two attempts.

To find out more, and get the pattern link, read on.

Girls Pinafore Dresses

Pinafore dresses are such a classic idea for little girls, and I've been collecting ideas for free PDF patterns for several years now. However, free patterns come and go, so I though I'd write up what I've found as an aid to others. I've also designed my own free pattern for a classic pinafore dress in 3 sizes: 4-5, 6, and 7-8. You can find more about that here.

By pinafore dresses, what I generally mean is a dress without sleeves which is (probably) designed to be worn with something underneath, for example a T shirt or jumper.  I have to say that, as I am British, for me a jumper is a knitted top with long sleeves - what Americans may call a sweater. I'm aware that in the US, "jumper" seems also to be another name for a pinafore dress! And the patterns I'll be covering here include some that are called jumpers. I will stick to calling them pinafore dresses, to avoid confusion for my British readers. (One day I'm going to do a post on ambiguous cross-Atlantic terminology in sewing clothes!)

Free Dress Patterns for Girls - Page 1 of 2

This is part of my series of posts for free PDF patterns for clothes for little girls. I've already covered clothes for babies and toddlers.  For posts on babies from about 3 months up to crawling, see this post. I've covered older baby and toddler clothes up to about 18 months, in this post. And clicking on the tabs at the top will provide you with hundreds of ideas for clothes, as well as accessories for babies and children.

So this 2 page post now is for girls from about 2 upwards, right up to 12, and more specifically, dresses, which I haven't covered comprehensively before. I've found literally hundreds of free PDF patterns for girls' dresses, and used many of them. Even though I've split it, it's going to be a long post! Page 1 (this one) includes only patterns for girls that come in sizes up to and including 6. And page 2 of this post covers patterns which can be also used from age 7 plus. Though you will find a lot for girls younger than 7 on page 2 as well, as some of the patterns go from (say) 18 months to age 8. It may seem a bit arbitrary to separate them into the second page, but my reasoning was, there are lots of patterns for younger girls - not so many for the older ones. As you'd expected, being free, some patterns work better than others.  I've done my best to weed out the no-hopers. But I've tried to be fairly comprehensive - people like different styles.

To find links to patterns for girls from about 18 months or 2, up to 6, read on.

Free Dress Patterns for Girls - Page 2 of 2

This is the continuation of my post for free PDF patterns for clothes for little girls, page 2 of 2. You are definitely in the right place if you want patterns for girls aged 7 and above. However, many of these patterns include smaller sizes too.  All the pictures in this post are of dresses I've made for my grand-daughters. As you'd expected, being free, some patterns work better than others. I've tried to weed out most of the dross!

I've opted to divide this post into 2 pages: This one, for patterns which include sizes for age 7 and upwards, many of which do also have smaller sizes; and the other, for patterns for girls up to 6. So if you are looking for patterns for girls younger than 7, do have a look on this page, but you might also want to go back to Page 1, with patterns for girls up to 6. 

Free A-Line Patterns

As you'll have gathered if you are a regular reader, I'm a huge fan of a basic A-line pattern, I think it's the most versatile. See what I mean on this post. 

 However, some of the free A-line PDF patterns that I used to use no longer seem to be available, or if they are, they are not supported. Either that, or the girls have outgrown the sizes available. Most of the dresses I made last year have used a pattern I've designed, drawn on newspaper. So I will shortly be putting my own pattern on the blog, it will be free, and will have a number of sizes. In the meantime, here are some I have used, they may work for you. 

Let's talk pockets - and some free pocket templates

As well as having a practical purpose, pockets can be a great decorative feature for children's clothes. And kids love them. It's very easy to design pockets, but in case you don't want to design your own, I have some templates for you. 

Here's a little pair of reversible trousers in age 9-12 months. I made them so the pocket on each face would be on the left leg. These were tiny pockets, each just a simple rectangle with the edges turned in - just big enough to get a little Duplo figure in, for example, or a little dinosaur.

And these little plasticized toddler play aprons each have a single layer round-bottomed pocket attached, edged with double-fold bias binding tape. Useful for putting the crayons in, or mixing spoons while baking!

To get more pocket ideas, or to find about more about how to make pockets, and to find my templates, read on!

More about play-suits

Two new play-suits this summer! 

Last summer, I had made play-suits, on request, for two of my grand-daughters. It takes a lot to persuade them into dresses, especially the older one. Something they could actually play in, and climb trees in, and run about in, was what they wanted. So I had come up with a design for play-suits. These evolved as I made them, and I've learned more while making the two new ones. This was the first one I made, from 100% cotton. The second one was better, and was made of a knit fabric. In fact, the knit version was still in wear this summer. 

But by this summer, the larger 100% cotton one was completely outgrown, and the smaller knit one, though still chosen often to wear, was also really getting tight in the body length. (The knit one from last summer is on the right in the picture below - she still liked wearing it but it wasn't really that comfortable. One of the two new ones from this summer is on the left.) 

To find out how I made these new play-suits, read on.