Totally for Toddler Dresses

While digging around in my fabric closet I came across ^ this.  And a lot of it, maybe 5 yards.  At first, I thought Why do I have this much of this fabric?  Then I took the time to really look at it and fell in love all over again.  It is just such a cute, homey scene.

Now, the reason I was digging through fabric was to put together fabric for a toddler dress.  There is a free pattern on the Moda blog that instantly struck me.  Here are the fabrics that I came up with...

This is the finished dress; the Moda pattern was supposedly for 18 to 24 month toddlers. I altered it slightly to suit my needs.  Here is what I did:

• My babies are 14 months and the bodice was too small for them.  I added 2 inches on the back.
• The Moda pattern had a solid piece bodice, no openings.  I don't know about your kids but mine have never stood still with their arms raised.  That would never get over their heads.  Instead, I left the bodice back open and added buttons. 
• The Moda pattern had the straps knot on the front of the bodice.  I didn't care for that at all.  Mine are sewn on and decorative with a cute button.
• The biggest difference was that I translated the measurements from Moda's jellyroll to inches. I used regular yardage as I don't have any cute Moda jellyrolls.

I am soooo grateful for the Moda Bakeshop; I was able to get the inspiration to create this awesome dress.  

This is the bodice, just before I sewed the bodice pieces together.  And see those straps there?  That is NOT where they go.  I made that mistake once -- sewed the straps into the front instead of the back.

Here is the finished bodice of my 2nd dress.  Here I made the mistake of sewing the straps too far towards the opening.  I didn't realize it until after attaching the skirt.  Waaaayy too late for an easy fix; I'd be seam ripping 2 rows of straight stitches and 1 zigzag stitch over gathered fabric.

I tried it on a babe as is.  Not perfect but fine.  The straps definitely won't fall down sewn like that.  My only concern is they'll grow out of the dress sooner.  But if that becomes the case I can fix it then. 

After completing 2 of these fun dresses, I think I have the kinks worked out. 

This is I-Baby, happily modeling the first dress for me.  They aren't this calm later.  In fact, for the 5th dress W-Baby was bawling to be out of it.  Poor baby!