Front Tie Spring Dress

I found the Front Tie Spring Dress on Make It and Love It and knew that I wanted to try to make one for Lillian.  It was easier to make than it looks but was very difficult to get measurements since Lillian is an active two year old!

Overall it fits her decently but it’s not my favorite thing I have made for her.  I think it’s the fabric that I’m not a huge fan of but I struggled finding one that I liked for a dress.  I found many that would make cute skirts but not necessarily a dress.

I kind of slacked on taking pictures for this dress because I wanted to have it finished for our family reunion.  Plus, Ashley has fantastic tutorials so I don’t really need to show my steps.

Anyway, the picture above shows the buttonholes that hold the front tie.  I used my automatic buttonhole feature on my machine which made it easy to get the holes the same size.  It did take me a little while to figure out how to save the settings on my machine though.  I also don’t really know how to line it up to get the buttonholes in the exact spot that I want them.

This is the area around the waist.  I know it looks like it would be pretty difficult but really all you are doing is inserting three pieces of elastic.  Each piece goes into it’s own casing but you work from the top down so it’s not an issue of getting them mixed up.

I wasn’t really sure where to measure on Lillian’s waist because she still has a baby belly.  You know, the one that sticks out but is oh so cute!  I kind of just measured where her waist should be even though there is no definition.

Here is the final dress.  As you can sort of see on the top left of the dress (well, left since we are looking at the dress) it’s a tad crooked.  I apparently didn’t get the gathering even before I attached the straps so it kind of looks twisted.  I’m not sure if that makes sense or not but I don’t know how else to describe it.

A closer shot of the top so you can see more detail.  I think the bow ends might look nice angled instead of straight across.  What do you think?

Here is Lillian wearing the dress (with daddy behind her).  I should probably make it a tad shorter but this way it will fit longer, plus I don’t feel like I have to make a diaper cover because it’s so long.

I made the straps a little long but not long enough to warrant redoing them.  Maybe I’m just lazy, but it’s only one of them that seems to fall down and again, maybe she can wear it longer this way.

My silly girl showing off since I told her to stand against the couch.  She thought she had lean against the couch and act like she was falling.  We never have a dull moment!

haha….I have no idea what this look is for, but I do know that the bow kept ending up in her mouth when we had it tied.  It was in the perfect spot for her to chew on so I untied it and think that it looks decent that way as well.

My overall opinion about this dress is that I think it’s cute but I don’t love it.  Again, I think that is because of my fabric choice.  The dress was not difficult to make at all other than getting the proper measurements.