Project Number Three - Dresses

Remember the semi-fail dress I made awhile back? Beth helped me do the second one, and it turns out I probably didn't do as bad as I thought I did! I just didn't realize that I should have taken out the stitches I had done to gather the fabric (duh!!). Here is the second one:

Beth taught me a neat new trick too. You know how the traditional way of gathering is to sew two lines of stitches side by side and then pull the threads? Well, Beth had me sew three lines of stitching instead of two; it was much easier to work with. You should try it next time you have to do gathering stitches.

Then we moved on to making pillowcase dresses. I have seen these all over blogland and had been wanting to make one for the longest time. This was a great project, because I learned how to make my own bias tape.  Yes, I actually made my own bias tape, can you believe it?? It is really not that hard and I think it was much easier to work with than the store-bought kind. If you'd like to learn how to make it, let me know, maybe I could do a tutorial.

Here is the first dress we made:

I think it turned out so cute... I love the little bow we added at the bottom. I purchased this fabric at Hobby Lobby.. I was very impressed with the quality of their fabric, as well as the low prices. I so wish they would put a store in my town!!

There are all kinds of pillowcase dress patterns out there. I used the one found here. I made my own bias tape and I made the ties out of leftover fabric rather than using ribbon. Here is the second one we made:

I used some of the special stitches on my machine again and some more variegated thread to add a little extra to the cuff:

So here are all 4 dresses that I ended up making for Teagan:

I will box them up and mail them off this week; I can't wait to see if she likes them.

After making the pillowcase dresses, I saw the Dress a Girl Around the World Sew Along here. I will be making a few more and sending them along. If you have some time and a little extra fabric, please consider helping out this cause or the Little Dresses for Africa organization!