A New Speed Record

The other day I set a personal speed record...I made FOUR dresses in ONE day!! My sewing machine could hardly keep up. :)

Actually...I think I spent more time in the fabric store choosing fabric than I did actually sewing the dresses. I am great at wasting some serious time in fabric stores. It's almost like time doesn't exist to me when I enter through the doors of JoAnn's...it's weird.

Anyway...I haven't sewn a dress since this one but thought it was time to find something fun for the girls to wear this summer. I was inspired by this line of dresses from Hanna Andersson (I heart that catalog)! And bonus...the dresses were on sale for $20 which is a pretty great price!

Basically, they're just simple pillowcase dresses in fun fabric. So...it got me thinking how much it would cost if I made my own pillowcase dresses. Even at the sale price it becomes expensive because I have two girls and would want one for each of them.

I looked up some online patterns for pillowcase dresses but in the end opted to buy a Simplicity Pattern that had several variations of the dresses along with some cute applique patterns that I might try at some point.

JoAnn Fabrics had a big sale where you could combine a 40% off regular price coupon with a 25% off total purchase coupon (it even discounted things already on sale!). I found fabric that I liked...and all together...it cost $5 for the pattern and $16 for the fabric and 3 rolls of ribbon. So for 2 dresses I paid $21!! (and that includes the pattern which I now have and can use to make lots of dresses in the future to save even more)

Here are the girls in their adorable little pillowcase dresses.

2 dresses done...2 more to go.

Every time I visit the fabric store I wonder about the fabric that looks like it's already finished into a little girls' dress. Do you know what I'm talking about? The little sundress-looking fabric that has all the gathering already sewn. With my coupons in hand I decided to try those too.

Full price, these dresses would have been more expensive than the pillowcase ones...but definitely took less time. The fabric is normally $17.64 a yard (mostly because they all have a licensed character somewhere on them...ours had Minnie Mouse and Dora). But for my girls I only needed a little over a half yard each and used the coupons. The total I paid to make these two dresses was $17.

Literally, all I had to do was sew one seam and then make some straps. Easy, peasy! Next time I'll probably make little spaghetti straps but I wanted to make sure they wouldn't just pull the dresses off this first time. I think they were snug enough for smaller straps, though.

Isa LOVES her sundress...Emma doesn't. Bummer. Emma isn't used to fitted clothes and just complains that it feels too tight on her. Luckily the girls are pretty much the same size so Isa can wear both of these dresses. :)

I can't wait to find more fabric sales so I can make little appliqued pillowcase tops for the girls next.

Have you seen any other cute summer styles for kids that might be worth a try to make? I'm toying with the idea of making little shirts or something for my boys...I've never made anything for them. If you have ideas...please send them my way!