Florida Flower Girl Dress

Here in Florida, it's still pretty hot.  So when my friend Megan asked me to make her daughter a flower girl dress for an outdoor wedding, I knew it had to be cool and breezy.  Especially since it would be worn by a two-year-old.  

So I designed this flower girl dress the same way as the popular pillowcase or bandana dresses that are so prevalent on the internet these days.  It's two pieces of fabric with the side seams sewn together until just shy of the arm holes.  A casing is sewn in the top of each piece and ribbon threaded through.  This forms a gathered neck and gathers the top of the dress.  

To make this dress a little more "dressy", I added a sash and a layer or ribbon at the end.  I used satin ribbon, which feels more formal than grosgrain.  Because I couldn't find the right color in the wide width, I made a sash out of the beige fabric and then added the blue satin ribbon on top.  This also gives it stability so the bow isn't floppy.  

I used stitch witchery to add the ribbon detail to the sash and hem of the dress.  I like this much better than stitching the ribbon on, because it looks so much cleaner.  For the hem, I strategically placed the ribbon on top of my hem stitch so it would be hidden.

This dress can be adjusted to fit many size toddlers, and you can't really make it too big as long as the length is correct.  My friend's daughter is a good bit bigger than my daughter (although they were born the same month), but I'm confident it will fit all two-year-old frames.