Navy Polka Dot Dress

I have been wanting to make this dress since before E was born. Do you know how difficult it is to find 1/2" red dots on white fabric? Almost impossible. We found some while we were in Wal-Mart one day and bought the 3 yards that they had. Not thinking that was enough we continued the search. Fast forward to 2 weeks before Christmas. Mom and I were in Jo-Ann and I came across some navy dot on off white fabric. As soon as I saw it I was in love. We bought 5 yards and headed home to begin designing the dress. (Turns out I had enough red fabric the whole time. I'm glad I didn't make the red one though, I love the navy so much more!)

I'm not sure why I insist on designing every dress that I pick but I usually do. I used a separate pattern for the bodice, sleeves and skirt. I also had to design the sleeve (which was Mom Tobler's vision, she always thinks up the cutest things.) One day I will make a dress by following the pattern, one day! Aside from all of that mental labor, three muslin's later I finally had my pattern. I am actually really proud of myself. I made this dress almost entirely on my own. I needed Mom's guidance while we fit and worked on the collar but I almost flew solo, which is a big deal! 

Once my dress was done I had a TON of fabric left over so I decided to make a matching dress for Ethnie. Looking back there were a couple of things I wold tweak but the whole thing came together in a day and that is with having to redesign the pattern as well.

E was really excited that Mommy was making her a dress to match hers and she wanted to help. She was really good at pushing the back stitch button, lifting the presser foot and cutting the threads.

I love having a little helper!

Voila! This final product! Here are way to many pictures of us all matching. I even made a little doll dress out of the same material. Yes I was seeing spots by the end of it!

I {love} the back!!

For Christmas Grammy made us some matching aprons! They were so stinking cute and E was beyond happy to have an "apin wid a skirt!" (apron with a skirt!) She loves the little ruffle, the big bow in the front and the cupcake pattern! 

Thank you for the super cute apron's Mom!!!! 

My favorite blooper from our picture session! Hehe!

I couldn't hardly wait to wear our dresses to church, but the boys had to match us too! So I got Daddy and Duke matching contrasting ties. We looked pretty fancy!

The back of E's dress with her bow and hair up so you can see the flaps. If I was doing it again I would drop the neckline in the back WAY down. 

This was such a fun project and I am beyond ecstatic with how they turned out! I'm going through sewing withdrawals now that I'm all done. I think the next project will be designing a princess quiet book!