Handmade -- Sew Easy, So Sweet

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To me, there's nothing cuter on a little girl than handmade clothes.

We get a lot of hand-me-downs for Peach. And I really appreciate them. But most of the clothes are not clothes I'd pick for her. There are lots of jeans and jean shorts, and tops with sparkly stuff on them. I like simple, unadorned practical clothes. Not ugly, just plainer, and sweeter. I like a little girl to look like a little girl. Every once in a while I take one of those sparkly tops out of the drier and put it in the plastic tubs to go back to its original owner. Just make it disappear. She always notices.

A week or two ago we were at Jo-Ann and found some fabrics that were on sale. I picked up a yard of each -- one yellow, one white. I thought I'd make some tops in the style of this dress, but Peach decided that dress is itchy. It would be itchy to me too, so I can't blame her. I remembered seeing some dresses last summer made from pillowcases and so I hunted. It only took a minute take long to find a tutorial that was easy to follow and it didn't take a lot longer to actually make the top. Thirty minutes, tops (no pun intended), from cutting board to finish. How awesome is that? It took even less to make the one with white eyelet because there was no hem -- just the scalloped edge of the lace.









The shorts are Butterick pattern B3832 with the extra ruffle at the bottom hem.


And the skirt came from this tutorial.


I don't think Peach needs any more clothes this summer, but this is the first pattern I'll turn to next year. Cute, cute, cute. One tip -- if you are using a piece of fabric and not an actual pillowcase, be sure to cut the fabric the size of a pillowcase (except not as long because this is a top, not a dress, and stitch up the sides -- that's not a step in the tutorial. Also, once you cut the "J" out of the "pillowcase" for the armhole, use the piece you cut out as a pattern on the other side, so they're identical.

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