a new dress.

My friend Moriah recently introduced me to Matilda Jane Clothing.  I am SO in love with their fun dresses, tops, and ruffle pants.  Especially their dresses like this one:

and this one:

Look at those little ruffle pants!!

Unfortunately, I don't so much love the price tag on these cutsey clothes.  Even though I am told you can sell these items for the same price (or more) that you paid for them.  That isn't enough to convince me to spend $50 on a dress for a 4 month old.

So I started a little research project:  find a pattern to make one of these sweet dresses.  I found this shop on Etsy and bought their apron knot dress pattern.  The pattern was $7 and was very thorough - 26 pages e-mailed to me shortly after I purchased it.  I spent less than $10 on fabric.

It was a little tricky (took me 3 hours).   The pattern includes sizes 6 months through girls 11/12 (and a matching doll dress pattern!) so I have a feeling I'll be making this dress many times over the coming years.  Hopefully next time it will go a bit faster.

And now for the little model... you're getting 3 pictures because I just couldn't pick one.  She is too stinkin' cute sitting outside with the flowers.