One of the places I like to look at for inspiration is Chasing Fireflies.  They have really cute and original clothes.  I saw this dress and thought it was pretty cute.  Here is my attempt at duplicating it.

I elongated and a-lined a basic long-sleeved t-shirt pattern.  Then I cut a few tiers into the pattern and added seam allowances.  I only did the tiers on the front, but I should have done both the front and the back.  Yet again I made it too wide, so I added shirring to the back.  This dress is a bit heavy with all the ruffles, so if I were to do it again I wouldn’t ruffle so much.  I also added puff sleeves, and a cute little ruffle placket with ribbon on it.  I’m pretty happy with how it turned out and it should definitely fit her two years in a row.

Now, the not so copycat…

This outfit is an attempt to use up bits of minkee that weren’t enough for a single use. It’s the same crossfront dress and leggings from my post before. I just made the leggings a little wider as the minkee doesn’t have as much stretch as a knit. The floral fabric is a printed sweatshirt fabric. I thought it was a fun print, but was having a time coming up with something to make out of it. I did this design a bit different with the colors, but I think it’s cute.

This next outfit is a tube-style dress which channels the 1980’s era.  I’m pretty sure I wore something like this at one point.  Anya tried it on and was doing the best poses in it.  Note to self: make sure she wears leggings when she wears this outside of the home!  This was pretty simple construction.  I just elongated a long-sleeve t-shirt pattern and added cuffs, a bigger collar than normal and a band at the bottom.  The main fabric is french terry and the pink fabric is rib knit.

This outfit was another creation.  I made the arms and legs extra long since I wanted to have gathers.  Next, before closing up the side seams, I put a few rows of shirring on the outside edges.  Then I covered the shirring with ribbon.  Voila – fun gathers!  The ribbon is also used at each tier on the skirt part of the dress.  You may recognize the fabric from a summer dress I made for myself.  The knits aren’t incredibly heavy so this won’t be a dead of winter outfit.  Not quite warm enough for the negative degrees!

 Then I made two of these rugs.   Yes, it one of the fringe benefits of having a taxidermist as a father.  I get “asked” to sew up the rug that goes underneath his critters.  Lucky, lucky me.  I gave my old sewing machine to my mom so I didn’t have to do them anymore.  **hint, hint, Mom** 😀