Itty Bitty Dress for Clementine

Thank you so much for all the congratulations! It's so fun to hear from so many of you all at once, especially those of you who usually lurk! I love seeing so many familiar names; know that I read and appreciated all of your kind words, even if I'll never be able to respond to them all (and forgive me for not really trying at this point...).

We are having so much fun with Clementine; she's so snuggly and sleepy all the time. I know it only gets better, but this stage is so much fun too. These are hazy days for us; the time slips by, we don't know what day it is and there's lots of napping. So great.

It seemed only natural when I knew I was having a girl that I should try out that baby dress pattern. Finally, a chance to actually TEST it (heh...OK, so I'm kidding; I had made a couple as gifts before). So I made the smallest size with a few modifications:

• Skirt dimensions: I used 6"x17" rectangles instead of the pattern specified 9"x18."
• Bias Trim: I folded a strip 2.5" wide in half, sewed it to the bottom hem of the skirt, pressed the seam underneath upward and topstitched it down. This way the folded edge is on the bottom of the skirt and you don't have to do any hemming.

Fabric: Amy Butler's Midwest Modern

Pattern: Itty Bitty Baby Dress (and check out The Photo Pool for more inspiration)

Fit: When I wrote the pattern, I said that it was designed "to fit a preemie or small newborn (about 7 lbs) right from birth." That was a guess. Now while I agree that this would fit a 7-lb baby, I think it would be way too big for a preemie; this fits Clementine just about perfectly right now, and she's a little over 8 pounds (she spit up about half a pound the first day, having spent about 15 minutes total making her exit from the womb...). I'm not sure it would fit a 9-lb baby, but we'll see!

The result is a dress that is shorter; almost a top really, so I thought I'd just pair it with a pair of pants. Since it's summer, the pants never made it on:

Bonnie's got a nice (free!) pattern/tutorial for super-cute matching bloomers that I've been meaning to try; I also purchased her Little Fishies Undies pattern and can't wait to make undies for Elliot! Right now the sewing machines are sitting dormant; maybe in a few weeks I'll be able to start sewing again...