Jumpers Made for a Little Girl

This is jumper #1.  It's made out of a purple denim fabric that I scored at a thrift store for only $1, along with the pink one below (and there's enough material left over of both to make several more things)!   Below is jumper #2. 

I made my own pattern for this dress.  I started by taping several pieces of paper together, and then laid a jumper that currently fits my daughter on it.  I traced the jumper, then added about 1 inch to the sides.  I used an inch because I was adding a 1/2 inch seam allowance, and making the dress a 1/2 inch larger in each direction. 

Here is a close up of my pattern.  I extended the straps upwards, and drew in the front neck line.

When cutting out my fabric, I used the same pattern for both the front and back.  I just folded down the straps for the front, and then used my drawn front neckline to redraw it on the fabric.  

Pinned together and ready to sew!  Before I began sewing, I zig zag stitched around both pieces completely, this was to prevent fraying.  Then I sewed the two pieces together. 

You can see in the picture below that I put a hem around the top of the dress, the arm holes, neckline, and straps.  Then I folded my straps down until they were the desired length and pinned them in place. 

Next came button holes and buttons.  I have become a pro at making button holes with my machine!  I found these adorable heart buttons at Walmart.

For the pink dress, I added a pocket on the front, which was just a square of fabric.  And finished!

For the purple dress, I added a ruffle to the bottom, and ribbon around the waist (with a bow).  The ribbon was simply something I had in my stash of stuff.  I had to hand sew the bow on.  Here's it is finished:

Come back tomorrow to see how I made matching dresses for her baby doll!