Hello everyone! I’m Vanessa, the blogger behind Little Big Girl Studio and I’m super excited to stopping by today to share a sewing project with you. Like a lot of you, I took up sewing after becoming a stay at home mom. I googled ‘free sewing patterns’ one day during her nap time and discovered tons of amazing sewing/craft blogs {like Jess’s blog!} full of helpful tutorials. I decided then and there that I needed a sewing machine and have been sewing like a mad woman since.
When Jess asked if I wanted to join in the ‘knock off’ fun, I knew I had to try my hand at the sweet little mini Boden dress below {left}. It looked simple enough and I loved the details of the dress, particularly the pockets! I was a bit nervous about it since I was doing this all from a small photo but I’m happy with the dress I ended up with {right}. Best part. . .I saved $39 making the dress myself!
I dug through my fabric stash and found a set of 2 vintage pillowcases I thrifted a few months ago for 30 cents each. The dress I made is a size 2T and I had a good bit of fabric left over. While I originally planned to use elastic in the neck and waist casings, I decided to use elastic thread instead. I love the way shirring looks and I think it’s quicker than trying to pull elastic through a casing. You can use any peasant dress pattern or tutorial to make this dress {you’ll find a great tutorial here}. I’ll show you below how to create the easy pockets and have also included a link where you can download the pattern pieces and pocket template I created to make my dress.
Get the full tutorial after the jump!
Don’t forget to check out Kojo Designs for their guest today-Tasha from Creation Corner! She made an awesome Pottery Barn bag knock off!
And please do stop by Knock Off Decor– the sponsor of this blog series! Inspiration galore.
Love this dress! Looks so easy. I’m on a roll of busting out a dress a day. Friends think I’m uber talented, little do they know the simplicity in all of these great designs! Thanks for sharing, and I’ll be sure to be bookmarking your blog too.
Super cute!!! Love Vanessa, all of her ideas are fantastic!!!
The pocket is my favorite detail. Darling, simple and fun.
Those pockets are adorable. Vanessa is great!
This is wonderful! So very cute. Thakns for sharing!
This is divine… it’s my favourite sort of dress for little girls. Your daughter is gorgeous, too!
I have so much I want to sew right now that it’s almost overwhelming. But, wow! I have to add this to my list. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful dress. I absolutely love LBG tutorials, they are always perfect and perfectly executed.
I love this dress, I think I try to sew one for my daughter 🙂 Thanks!
The only disappointing thing about this tutorial is that it is a little girl’s dress. I want one!!
I love this!!! I linked to your tutorial on Craft Gossip Sewing:
http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-peasant-dress-with-pockets/2011/04/16/
–Anne
I love mini-boden. Your knock-off is adorable!
Thank you everyone!!!
I had trouble with this pattern. It say that your bodice pieces and skirt pieces should be the same width. My bodice ended up about 2.5ins smaller in the width? I followed your pattern exactly as my daughter is a 2T. too. I did print it at 100% and the test square came out right. Did anyone else have this problem. Thankfully I have enough fabric to cut out another bodice.
Wow..this is so simple and really cute!! Thanks so much, and just in time for Easter 🙂
What a great tutorial!! I have the exact same vintage pillow cases. They came from my grandmother’s house a few years ago.
So sweet! I featured this today over at Today’s Top 20!
Amanda
http://www.todaystoptwenty.blogspot.com
OH ~ this is just perfect for me; thank-you!! This was one of the things I had decided I needed to copy from the mini-Boden catalog as my youngest has a deep love for pockets right now & I have am smitten with peasant tops…
i have those same pillowcases. LOL i used one several years ago to make a pillowcase dress for my little girl when she was a toddler, she wears it as a top now.
anyway, about the dress: the zooms of the original do not show any sleeve seams. this is actually a tunic with an integrated pocket and waistband. i like this design for little girls a lot and i think i’ll put this on the list.
I *love* this. It’s so easy and so cute! Sorry for the self-promotion, but I just have to show this off–such a great tutorial!
http://nomethodmethod.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/mini-boden-knock-off/
I bookmarked this back in April & finally had time to make it this week. I’m so pleased with how it turned out, I had to share: http://www.bflomama.com/2011/06/16/on-the-sewing-table/
(My daughter is très heureuse as well!) xo
I love this!What a great tutorial!I’m visiting from 101 summer sewing tutorials roundup. Have a great day! http://runwithglitter.blogspot.com
You say 2T-could you give finished measurements? I’m trying to have the dress fit a smaller size, but I’m not sure exactly what measurements a 2T is for you!
It’s a lovely dress, and a lovely child!
Hi! I am trying to make this for my daughter, but I am stuck and could use some help! I’m at the step where you sew the bodice pieces to the skirt pieces. I opted to use the 1/4″ elastic instead of the elastic thread. My problem is that I have only been sewing for a month and this is my first time sewing with elastic, so I don’t understand how to incorperate the elastic into this step. Any help would be really appreciated!
Cute idea! Good for you to be creative and make things for your little girl. I really like the backpack. May you have many fun hours of creating cute baby girl outfits. ~
I’m a new internet/self taught sewist. I’m so excited with this post as I’ve been looking for a simple dress to sew for my girls. I’ll do this dress before weekend. Thanks for sharing