a carolina dress for Thanksgiving

I've been dying to make some fun holiday outfits for my daughter. It's part of what gave me the itch to start sewing, so I was really excited to find some fun holiday fabrics at Joann for 50% off a couple weeks ago!

As soon as I saw this gourd fabric, I grabbed it and knew I wanted all of it no matter how much it cost! Thankfully it was on sale and I only needed 2 yards.

I've mostly been working with free patterns I can find on the internet and I had found this pattern for the Carolina Dress by Shwin and Shwin. The free pattern was 12-18 months, which is what I needed and I really wanted to make this dress for my daughter for Thanksgiving. 

By this time, I knew I wanted to sew a lot of things, so I also splurged for a $15 iron and tabletop ironing board in order to get my fabrics looking nice and to iron my seams (it was a game changer!)

I learned a LOT(!!!) doing this dress. I actually made bias tape this time so I could finish the neckline, and I learned how to put in a ZIPPER! I was very nervous about this because it involved using a different foot on my sewing machine, and making sure that it was lined up correctly and zipped up and down lol. It is definitely the hardest thing I have attempted so far, but I am glad I did.

This was a perfect Thanksgiving dress! Of course, I didn't actually get any pictures of her in it on Thanksgiving, but trust me, she was adorable!

I cant't wait to make this dress in some fun spring fabrics! I may consider shortening the length a little too to wear with leggings and bloomers.