The Hawaiian Vibe

The girls are going on a trip for 2 weeks to Hawaii. I couldn't resist sewing a few Hawaii inspired dresses for them. I had more Hawaiian print fabric in my stash than I realized. I bough most of the fabric I have in 2006-07 so I really have no idea why I was buying all this crazy printed fabric? At that time I was quilting and I'm sure I would have been kicked out of the quilters club if I showed up with any of this to actually use in a quilt! However it made for super cute little dresses for two super cute little girls. All three designs are free patterns - there are some really cute patterns out there if you take the time to look. I found the instructions on these to be really simple and easy to follow.

Summer Picnic Dress

The first dresses I made were from the Cottage Mama blog by Lindsay Wilkes. Which I would highly recommend to anyone.  I have her book and the pieces in there are amazing. I'm planning on making coats for the girls this winter (another blog). As well check out her Georgia Vintage Dress, Party Dress and Apron Dress they are all very unique and have that old school feel. I plan on making them but using modern fabric - I an interested to see how the contrast turns out.

These dresses were easy to make. I thought the girls may be bothered with the ties, but it didn't seem to even get noticed. The ties are nice because you don't have to be exact. I have in the past put straps that were too long - and you can't send them to school with parts hanging out! So this is a nice idea, and in the cooler months we can add a shirt and tights under the dress. The one hiccup I did have was the lining. It was short and kept lifting up. Maybe I should have stitched it at the side seams to prevent that.

Paper Fan Dress

The next dress I tackled was The Paper Fan Dress by Anna Maria. It was my first time doing box pleats and knife pleats. They were not prefect but I think they turned out just fine. On the coral dress I made a oopsie and forgot to hem the sides, so I improvised (after having a panic attack) and made some bias tape to use around the sides. It did mess with the flow of the dress but if you tell people it was intentional they will never know. Ha!

On this project I got to once again face my biggest nemesis - button holes. My god button holes hate me. I map it out, practice with scraps and the machine just does what it wants. These turned out ok (after a few tries). This dress took more time than the supper picnic dress because of the pleats but I just love the look. They are easy to put on and look great. It's hard to get a usable picture of the girls wearing the dresses. They don't sit still long enough!

Izzy Dress

Finally pictures of people wearing the dresses! This is the Izzy Top by Teri from Climbing the Willow. Her tutorial was so easy to follow, with pictures to guide you along the way. It took me an hour to make one - which is fast in my books. I added length to the top to make it a dress. I liked this pattern so much I made a second size 2 dress and size 5 top for the girls to wear to school in fall colors. Lee likes to pick out the fabric - which I just love because she is so excited to get the finished product.

With these three dresses they should be quite fashionable in Hawaii and look like complete tourists!