knotty dresses (and a tie shirt)

  
I really enjoy making clothes for my kids, so I thought that I would share a couple of pictures. I have this really bad habit of seeing something that is really expensive, and rather than just appreciating the time that goes into it (not to mention the cost of materials) I think, "Gee, I could make that." And then the craziness begins.
Here are two things that I actually DID manage to make myself.
The knotty, or apron dress- found a pattern for this on Etsy, there are a few. This is a pretty easy dress to make- You need about a yard of the skirt color, maybe 1/2 a yard for the bodice (less if you make the lining out of a different material) and about a fat quarter for the apron. The pattern calls for a little more for the apron, but for the butterfly dress, that is what I had, and I think it worked fine. You can also modify the pattern to use up lots of scraps by cutting stripes for the skirt. It can ben made with or without the apron, and the straps could tie at the shoulder, snap, button or knot, like I did mine. I think that I made the skirt a little long on the easter dress, but that is a small point!

I have seen many of these shirts around that have ties on them, and thought that they were probably pretty easy to make. This is the second one that I have made, but by far better than my first! I just used a hanes undershirt for the tee, that is just what I had on hand, a regular weight tee shirt would have worked better. However, I sometimes find it hard to find solid color, no pocket shirts. I can't remember where I got the tie pattern- I probably just searched google images. Traced it onto some double sided fusing, cut out the shape, ironed it onto the tie fabric, then cut it out. Ironed it onto the shirt, then just did a straight stitch around the edge. The tie is one piece, I sewed a line to differentiate the top "knot" part from the rest. A zig zag stitch works really well too, especially if you have a fabric that is more prone to fraying. I personally don't mind if it frays a bit, and usually if you get good fusing, it will work like an iron-on, and you don't have to worry too much about it.