Ruffle Dress Refashion

I've seen a lot of cute things in blogland made from this ruffle fabric and have been wanting to try it. Until recently it wasn't available in my local fabric shops and at $17 + a yard I didn't jump on it right away. One day I saw this XLarge top at a thrift store and grabbed it for a few dollars. I thought it would be an inexpensive way to see how I liked sewing with the ruffled material.

I used the Sienna Dress pattern that I had from Lil' Blue Boo to make a cute little dress for my toddler:

Since the shirt already had some interesting details with the crisscrossing ruffles at the top of the shirt, I was able to keep that same look by my pattern placement. I reused the shimmery neckline to finish my smaller neckline adding a flower made of the ruffles to cover the spot where my new seam ended up. I think I might add a few more flowers there so it doesn't look so lonely.

Cutting the ruffled fabric and sewing it, I had to be careful to keep the ruffles laying the same direction, so it took a little more pinning than I might otherwise have needed. Matching the ruffles at the shoulder seams to the front was a little tricky too. Overall, however, it is a quick way to get a much more complicated looking dress from a really simple style. I've already got plans for a few more ruffle fabric dresses for my older girls.

I couldn't get baby girl to pose wearing her new dress and wasn't up for a power struggle over a blog post, but she does like it and looks so cute in it!

Learning our Colors

So far our summer has been filled with as many indoor activities as I can dream up during the day, saving the outside time for the evenings when the temperature is more bearable for a cranky pregnant lady. This is one we did last week. I saw the idea on Pinterest, pinned from the blog Gluesticks... and thought it would be a good craft for the girls to help with as well as a fun way to have the older girls help baby girl learn her colors. I got the unfinished wood pegs and candle holder cups at Hobby Lobby. Even though they were pretty inexpensive to begin with, all their unfinished wood was 30% off last week... even better. The girls helped me paint all the solid colors and I finished the hair and faces after they were asleep. They've already had a lot of use. Now I just need to whip up a little drawstring bag to keep them together.