Playing Dress-Up

Now that there's a little lady in the house, this mama has been playing dress-up! We're officially out of newborn sizes now (goodness, she's growing fast!), so wardrobe options are a little less limited now. In fact, I may have gone a bit overboard on the cute long-sleeve bodysuits in 0-3 months size... but those little Peter Pan collars are so adorable! Fortunately, most of them were a dollar (or less), so in all I've probably spent less than I would have on one full-priced bodysuit from Gap. And a girl needs options, right?

But bodysuits don't really work by themselves. And since my preference for skirts means that Rosa has only a couple of pairs of pants -- quite literally a "couple," since she has two! -- it was time to bring out the sewing machine. Thanks to a few helpful tutorials, we're in business! The little skirt above was made with the instructions from Delia's great tutorial here: Easy Baby Skirts. My only change was to decrease the width of the waistband, since I didn't want a fold-over waistband. Oh, and the shirt I used was really wide, so I reduced the width and added side seams, too. This tutorial will be super easy to "size up" as Rosa gets bigger.

Love that cute "fluffy" cloth-diapered bum!

Below are three more skirts. The one on the left is inspired by kojodesigns's Ruffle Newborn Skirt. I just used some brown jersey leftover from the Baby K'tan I made, and cut it into a roughly A-line shape. I folded down the top to make a casing, since I didn't have the t-shirt sleeve casing already in place.  Quite honestly, I think this is easier than using a shirt sleeve, and it increases your options (you could use any knit shirt, instead of an enormous men's shirt sleeve).The bottom is unhemmed because it's hidden by the ruffles, of which there are only two because I found them somewhat time-consuming and frustrating. But worth it.

The middle skirt is also from the Easy Baby Skirts tutorial, this time pleated instead of gathered. And the skirt on the far right is made from a luscious-but-too-small J. Jill velour tank top. I used some wide brown elastic salvaged from a tank top for the waistband -- if you're like me and always cut out the shelf bras in your tank tops, take a look at the elastic; it's usually super soft stuff that's worth salvaging if you have the time to unpick some serging.

I love how fast and easy these skirts are. I have a whole stash of knit shirts that have been exiled from my closet, so I'm looking forward to whipping up a few more. Here's hoping that Rosa can make it through her wardrobe before she grows out of it -- it's nice to have an excuse to "dress up" every day of the week! Of course, my laziness with diaper changes and her propensity to spit up sometimes offer several opportunities to dress up on any given day... *wink*