Layer Cake Dress

I need to put this out there before I get started. I am NOT a skilled sewer! I am just learning as I go and teaching myself. I like to pretend that I am creating something fabulous and grand.  Usually I feel so fulfilled afterward regardless of how it looks.   But those of you with any real sewing skills, please forgive me and turn your head if it hurts to look at my work. I tried to take one sewing class a couple of years ago and the lady bless her heart (as we say in Georgia) talked to me about everything BUT sewing on the sewing machine. She made me a good healthy lunch, but 8 hours later, never touched the machine.

I made this dress for my husband's best friends newborn baby girl. My first attempt at it, was Arabella's Valentine's  Day dress. Stephanie gave me some left over heart fabric that she used to make Penelope a precious Valentine's Day skirt.   You won't be seeing the Valentine's Dress. It has made its one and only appearance it needed to make. I was so proud of just making a Layer Cake Dress that I didn't realized how bad it was till I saw Arabella playing in the park. I was sitting there telling myself; I am a bad mom. I dressed my daughter in that and made her go out in public! Of course, Arabella thought it was awesome and played like usual.

I followed Prudent Baby's tutorial about the Layer Cake Skirt and just added the ribbon in the middle instead of the middle layer of fabric. I finished the top with a 1/4 inch seam and then gathered it like you to the other layers. I sewed the ribbons to tie over the shoulders by hand. I used buttons to cover the thread where I attached the ribbon.

I also got inspiration from Prudent Baby about the big bow, but I will be doing a post very soon about those. Every little girl has to have a huge bow! That is the southern girl coming out in me. : )