Little dress and neckerchief

Hello, everyone,

I'm sure you're all waiting for Santa and your guests. Me too. But I still have an hour or so to spare, so I’ll quickly show you my latest sewing projects. Yesterday I sewed this little dress with a box pleat (front and back) for my youngest granddaughter. I’m very proud of it—it’s my very first dress, and I’m absolutely in love with it. I’d gotten her mom’s approval for the fabric beforehand.



To go with it, I made a little double-sided neckerchief. This was another first for me: my first press stud/Snaply! Yeah, you really have to figure out how to attach those things at first. But in the end it was pretty easy—a great little thing.



You can wear the neckerchief on its own or together with the little dress:



Now I’m curious to see how the gifts are received.

I don’t want to keep you any longer now, and I wish you a wonderful Christmas Eve.

Warm regards from Ina

WOW, Ona, that’s your journeyman’s piece!!!
Best wishes, Inge

That’s so cute!

It turned out beautifully. I’m sure there were lots of sparkling eyes 

Thank you so much for your compliments :-)
I’ll be giving the gifts tomorrow when the family spends the day with us.

Warm regards, Ina

Wow, Ina, I’m totally in love with this little dress. It looks so pretty, and I can totally picture the little girl wearing it. You nailed it. Congratulations!

There’s so much you can make for girls. I’m sure you’ll come up with plenty more ideas.

Warm Christmas greetings from Monika

Thanks, Monika, for your kind words.

I gave the items as gifts yesterday. The parents really liked them, and soon the little one will be running around in them. I’m now very motivated to sew more dresses. Next, I want to try my hand at a summer dress with a tiered skirt. But the project still needs to mature a bit.

Warm regards, Ina

Ina, I can understand your enthusiasm. Back then, I also sewed so many little dresses and skirts for my daughter.

Thank goodness she loved wearing them. There could never be enough pink and ruffles.

We’ll be curious to see how they’re received and look forward to your next idea 

Hi Ina,
I think the dress with the scarf is super cute! The great thing about sewn items is that you can keep making things for the kids for much longer.
Once they reach a certain age, they don’t like knitted or crocheted items anymore. At least that’s how it was with my grandchildren.

@Petra,
that sounds like a rosy time ahead for me. But the parents don’t like true pink or too many ruffles. These days, more muted colors are in style for kids too—at least if the parents have their way. I’m slowly feeling my way forward there. If the kids get to have a say, things look quite different.

@Ruth
You’re absolutely right! The possibilities in sewing are just so much more varied, if only because there are so many different fabrics. Wool is all well and good and warm, but there aren’t that many variations. That’s probably why I’m so excited about my new hobby. Just looking at the beautiful fabrics and patterns is enough to make you gush.

I’m going to go sort through my fabrics right after this... :-)

Best regards, Ina

Oh Ina, it turned out beautifully. I really like the fabric. Combined with the pattern, it doesn’t look too dressy or too casual.
Just great.
Love, Petra 

Dear Petra, you’re absolutely right.
Love, Ina

Ina, the little dress is so cute—it would look great on my granddaughter too (she wore a little dress for the first time the day before yesterday!). How old is your little one (what size does she wear?) I’m really in the mood to do some sewing again, and maybe I’ll finally give jersey a try…

Dear Christina, I think once kids can walk, it’s time for little dresses. My granddaughter is 9 months old; she can’t walk yet, but she still crawled around in a little dress at Christmas—and it worked out just fine.

I sewed the dress in size 80, so it’ll have to wait a little while longer in the closet. They’ll grow into it, after all. You just have to keep that in mind when choosing the fabric and deciding whether to go with long or short sleeves. Plus, jersey or sweatshirt fabric is stretchy and grows with them a bit.

If you want to sew exactly the same model as mine, the pattern is from the book *Sewing with Jersey for Babies* by Ina Andresen, published by Topp-Verlag. Even as a beginner, I found it very easy to sew. I like the pattern so much that I’ll probably sew another one with a different fabric. For a summer dress, you could also shorten the sleeves. In any case, the pattern is really easy, so I’m sure you’ll manage it just fine.

If you’ve never sewn with jersey before, please make sure you have a jersey needle in your sewing machine. And good thread. And always sew a test piece with the jersey first. But I’m sure you already know all that. So, I hope you have lots of fun making your first little dress for your granddaughter.

Best regards, Ina

Thanks, Ina, for the tips. Selina is already 14 months old and has been walking for a good two weeks… She’s quite small, so size 80 will definitely still fit. I’ll take a look at the book right away.