That's so cute!

Well, I've made 4 dresses so far this week, all using the peasant dress pattern which is free to download from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom. Thankyou!!
(NB The downloadable pattern only has the pattern pieces - you'll need to go back to the blog page for the instructions. Be warned though, there are loads of adverts, which I suppose is payback for the free pattern. In the end, I took a "screenshot" of the instructions as the page took forever to scroll through as the ads were constantly loading and changing...)

I started with the fabric I showed you last time and made a size 7-8 dress. (I haven't managed to get a photo in decent light yet.) I'd forgotten just how fast this pattern works up! Not including the pocket,  it's done in under an hour.
(I am slightly concerned about the width at the hem... I made it as wide as the fabric would allow but next time I make a larger size, I'll buy more fabric and lay it out differently.)

Next, I dug out the green rose print fabric I bought nearly a year ago intending to make myself a dress for a family wedding. I changed my mind and the fabric got tucked away. There's 3.5m of it! It was from the same range of rose print fabric that I bought last autumn, so I used some of that (in pink) for the sleeves. I decided to go for the smallest size on the pattern - 12-18 mths.
When you measure the skirt length, you're told to measure X inches down,plus X inches across. But this will add all the extra width at the side,rather than across the full width.  So I did my usual trick and changed the pattern... as you can see in the photo below, the right hand edge of the pattern piece has been "swivelled" a bit. This gives about an extra inch in the centre at the hem. At the side edge I simply followed the angle of the pattern and the two together gave the width the pattern called for.

To get the right curve on the hem, I folded the side edge in to meet the centre fold.

Then flip the fabric over and you'll see that little "lip" that's stuck out at bottom right. Do you see it there? Cut it off.

There you go!

Now, when you lay the front and back out flat, you can see the hem has a slight upward curve at the side edges. Perfect! 

After that, I followed the peasant dress pattern exactly. And then did it again! And here are the finished dresses, although I've not done the pockets yet  -

Aren't they CUTE?! Not a word I use often, and I've written it in capitals!

I quickly followed them with another in the gorgeous animal print I got in the sale last year. There wasn't really enough, so I had to make it a bit shorter and used bias binding on the hem edge rather than a turned hem. But that made it look SUPER CUTE!

Admit it - you want to give it a try yourself now don't you?!