Girl Friend Princess

I saw this fabric on the Shwin & Shwin blog that I follow and loved it. And here's what I made with it!

It's Girl Friends in Bright by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman. (Look at me remembering details of fabric.)

I knew my girl would love it as well. So, I went searching for it. I knew it wouldn't be carried in any of the fabric stores in my area and I was going to Texas to visit my twin soon, so I searched online for stores in her area. Texas is bigger than SC so I would have more options...I thought. There was a sewing center that sold Robert Kaufman fabrics, but I didn't know if it sold this particular fabric, but we checked it out anyway. They didn't have it in the store, but I did find a whole bunch of other fabric to bring back with me.

The fabric wouldn't leave my mind so I found a shop on etsy that had it in stock and for about the same price I had seen it online at other stores that didn't have it, including the shipping. There was one yard left so I bought it. It's so pretty! When I showed it to my girl she gasped and said, "Oohh! Is that mine?" "It sure is."

I  loved the pajamas that Shauna made for her girl, but I wanted to make something a little different for my girl. I decided to make her a nightgown. Since she loves dresses, she also loves nightgowns. They are dresses you can wear to bed.

I don't have a nightgown pattern and I wanted it to fit her just right the first time, so I found some fabric in my stash that I didn't know what to do with yet and used it as a first draft. I picked out some articles of clothing that fit my daughter well and have the shape I was sort of going for and created my own pattern.

The finished product ended up being slightly bigger than I wanted. So I made some changes to my first draft. I made the shoulder straps thinner in width ,and made the bodice part smaller in size to help pull in the neckline a little more. The sunflower nightgown fits her, but I wanted something a little more fitted. She will definitely be able to wear this one for a couple of years.

Retooled pattern. Ready to transfer.

I perfected my paper pattern, traced it on to my fabric, and cut out a front piece and a back piece.



Pretty!

Once those were serged, I sewed the pieces together. Sewed the arm holes and neck hole under, and finished the hem.

Two nightgowns completed!









 Now, I just needed to choose buttons for the shoulder straps. I asked the girl which ones she wanted.




She chose purple. Imagine that!









Once the buttons were sewed on, it was ready to wear!

 Awww. So glad that she loves it.

The neckline is still a little wider than I would like, but it fits better than the sunflowered one. I still need to tweak the pattern just a little but more for a perfect fit. I am happy with the results, though.

 I apologize for the slightly blurry photo, she likes to dance and move. And apparently make silly faces at me.

In addition to the nightgown, I had a little fabric leftover. I saw that Shauna made her daughter matching stuffed princess dolls from the remaining fabric. I thought, "How cute, that is so clever!" So, I made some for my girl as well, but slightly different. I didn't cut as close to the princesses as she did.

 I may have gone a little overboard. I made 15 little princesses. Fourteen are pictured, I am not sure where the missing princess is at the moment. No two princesses are the same.

I am still not sure if I got all of the different princesses I could, but I plan on trying to get a few more out of the leftover fabric to give to other little girls.

The back fabric piece of each princess is from my scrap fabric pile and coordinates with their dress. They are totally fun. The first couple I made, my girl kept asking me what her name was. I tried to get her to name them instead. I think one of them ended up being Princess Pinkie 'Possum, or something like that. Creative.

Check out the Shwin & Shwin blog site (link at top). It's super fun. They have cute patterns and some are free! Awesome! If it's free, it's for me.