Drawstring Dresses

Since Monroe hates having her clothes changed, I thought for this summer these dresses would be easy to get her in and out of without a fuss.

Items you will need:

1 yard of cotton fabric
Sewing machine and matching thread
Scissors
Pattern
Iron and ironing board
Pins
About 3 ft of ribbon/rope for drawstring.


Start by laying fabric out and folding in half, wrong sides together. Lay pattern over and pin. Cut around the pattern:

I made up the pattern, but it will be perfect for a baby between 18 months and 2T. Since Monroe is already in 18 month clothes, I know by the summer this will fit.

The pattern is 9.5" across the top where the drawstrings are going to be. 5.5" down and then another 4.5" over for the arm hole (make a "J"). Then 20" in length, and 20.5" along the bottom for width.

Start by cutting three small slits in the curve of the arm hole. Iron and pin:

Then, at the top, fold 1/4" and iron, then another 3/4" and iron. This will be left open on the sides so the drawstrings can go through. Then pin.

To the sewing machine! First, sew the curves of the arm holes. For this part, I quickly unpinned the top and unrolled it so that I could sew all the way up the sides, that way it doesn't unravel. Then, I pinned the top again, and ONLY stitched across the bottom, it's important to leave this open. If you sew it closed then you can't add a draw string.

Turn it over, looks like this. Do this to both pieces of fabric, front and back.

It was easy to hem the dress before the pieces were sewn together. Fold the bottom hem 1/4", iron, pin, and sew straight across.

After that is finished, it's time to take both pieces of fabric and put them RIGHT sides together. Stitch the sides together from the hem of the dress all the way up to the bottom of the arm pit.

Here it is pinned:

Turn dress right sides out, and iron.

Now it's time for the drawstrings. After cutting the appropriate length of your drawstring I suggest folding the ends of the ribbon over and either gluing or sewing so they don't unravel in the wash. The length depends on how big you want the bow, I cut each one about 15 inches. Then, feed it through your loop at the top.

Do this for front and back pieces, then tie together on the sides!

Now, the dress could be done, but I like to add embellishments. Buttons or ruffles are cute. I chose ruffles.

Cut three strips of fabric, one long for the middle (approx 8") and two shorter for either side of the middle, (approx 5")

Choose a setting on the sewing machine that will create a looser stitch. Take the longest strip first and just sew a straight line down the middle.

It will look like this.

Then, hold on to the bottom string and push the fabric up so that it starts to bunch up.

Pin the ruffle to the front of the dress and stitch down the middle.

Repeat for smaller ruffles and add to each side of the large ruffle.

Finished!