This summer I’ve been busy making lots of fun dresses not only for me, but for my adorable little niece Layla. She’s not even 2 years old yet, but I figured she could use a lovely summer wardrobe.
Since I have a large collection of vintage patterns I decided to pick out a few of them to make for her. My first choice was Simplicity 5006 from the 1960’s, a fun one-piece dress. I made the dress in a blue floral fabric seersucker material. The pattern included matching panties, but I decided not to make those.
I decided to embellish the dress with some white rick-rack. I’ve wanted to use rick-rack for a long time, but this was the first time I got a chance.
The dress came out very nice and I even has some fabric left over for a matching hair scarf or belt, depending how it’s used.
Layla was kind of unsure about this dress, but she may have not just been in a blue mood when I took this picture.
The second dress I made was 1970’s Simplicity 5705 dress. This particular pattern was very much the same as the last only a later version.
This second pattern like the first had a matching bottoms, but I decided just to make the dress a little longer.
For 75 cents I bought the most adorable green floral cotton fabric at an antique store. There wasn’t much there but I just loved the fabric.
I managed to use every inch of the fabric to make the main body of the dress. I extended the very bottom using a contrasting yellow cotton. Since I was using white bias tape to finish the sleeves I felt I need more white on the dress. Then I came up with the idea of adding a white ribbon around the seam line between the green and yellow fabric.
Layla seemed to like this dress better, and even wore it to lunch that day.
The last pattern I made was a vintage playsuit using 1940’s Simplicity 1947. This is by far my favorite of all three.
I used a white and peach seersucker material and a white cotton contrast. I just love the vintage look of this little outfit. It’s so cute.
Little Layla wasn’t so sure of the outfit as a whole with the matching skirt. However, She seemed to have fun in the playsuit part. So much fun she tried to leave before I was through taking pictures.
Overall I’m really happy with how these outfits came out. It also looks like Layla has been enjoying them too. Now that summer is winding down it’s time for me to start work on her autumn wardrobe.
Oooh I love that playsuit pattern! As the mother of a young infant, I’ve so far only managed to sew up a couple of pairs of pants, but I’m working on a coat. I hope I get it finished before it is too small! As for the photos, once they’re moving, I think it’s all over!
Thanks Tanith, I really liked that one too. As it turns out so did my niece. I’d love to see the coat you are making. I made one a while back for niece, but it came out a little too big.
I love vintage little girls clothes. I just inherited about 20 vintage patterns from my late grandmother-in-law. Most of them are girls patterns. I cant wait to use them. Vintage little girl patterns are getting harder and harder to find. Great project!!!
Thanks’ Jessyka. I’ve been pretty lucky in my vintage pattern finds and have several little girl patterns. I really enjoy making them, they are a lot of fun. I’d love to see the project you make with yours.