Happy Easter! Spring sewing.

 

As usual, I thought of doing something at the last minute. I guess some people figure out at some point that things like holidays will come along, and they plan accordingly.

 

 

Not me… I’m taken by surprise more often than you would think.

I decided… around the fifth week of Lent… that I needed to sew some things for my grandchildren… who now number nine: six boys and three girls. This was part of my issue — I could not think of what would be nice spring-time clothing for boys!

What could I make that would be as cute as a girl’s dress?

By the time I thought of it — duh, bow ties — it was too late for planning purposes or for anything fancy, Easter-wise. So I left it up to them if they wanted to use the things for Easter or not, no pressure.

I just needed to sew. And I even had some pretty fabric in two colorways in my stash — yay for stashing fabric!

I made these little dresses:

 

And a bunch of bow ties:

 

The fabric will be the last of the girls’ dresses, which I was able to leave to this week, since Finabee already had quite a fancy Easter dress all picked out.

Her brother had his bow tie though (not that he wore it, but that’s okay):

For the bow ties I used this tutorial — Rosie has used it before and it’s really very simple. I almost succumbed to overthinking with the bowties, but in the end, went with this tutorial and all was well.

Pro-tip: Do not bother sewing the neckband on the wrong side and then turning. Turning a long narrow tube is super time-consuming and frustrating. Just press the seam allowances, fold it over, and topstitch it closed. In this case, the neckband will be under a collar anyway.

 

For the smaller dress with the elastic, I used this post and printed out her pattern. It was very easy! It fits Nora, who is almost one! (I let Rosie do the final elastic fitting for the neck on her — I sent it to her with the elastic in its casing, but hadn’t sewn the ends together.)

For the larger one, I used McCall’s 9291, a pattern I had in my stash. For some unknown reason I used the size 4, which was too large, but Rosie fixed/hacked it. Had I planned a bit better, I would have made something fancier, but I figured that the fabric would carry us through, and perhaps the bright green seam binding would add a little pizzazz.

For the facings, instead of hemming them (which is practically my least favorite aspect of facings, my least favorite aspect of sewing dresses — usually I try to do a lining, not a facing), I used the same narrow, double-folded bias tape. I think it makes a nice finish.

I also added sleeves to this pattern (grabbed from another pattern — I have lots of patterns!), just to make it less sun-dress-y. I simply hand-sewed the facing armhole to the dress armhole, enclosing the sleeve seam allowance.

 

It’s been so long since I sewed little girls’ dresses that I didn’t trust myself to do anything more elaborate on such short notice, but now I’m back in the saddle!

 

If you look at my Pinterest board, you will see more ideas for sewing for kids. Rosie’s too!

Did you sew any dresses or anything this Easter?

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