I was so excited when I saw this cute floral midi dress at Walmart of all places. It got even better when I saw the price- only $9.88! I bought one for myself and I have loved it. It’s so stretchy and comfortable! Then a few days ago I thought about having matching outfits with my little girl for Mother’s Day. I don’t think we have ever had matching outfits. I stopped by Walmart and picked up another one as I had decided I was going to make her a dress out of it. I was so nervous to do this project because I’m not a great seamstress, but then I saw a tutorial for making toddler play dresses from women’s shirts HERE. I realized I could do this a dress and so can you! You use the already existing hemlines of the neck and the sleeves, which makes this even faster and simpler. I timed myself and I did the whole thing in an hour and a half. So go grab a couple of these cute dresses and make yourself and daughter one! They are out of stock online, but I found mine in the Juniors section of the local Walmart.
Here are the dresses I chose. They also have a blue floral one and a few other cute patterns.
Seriously only $9.88. Total steal of a deal!
First lay your dress out on a flat surface. You are going to cut the front from the back of the dress, leaving the sleeves intact.
You will now have two pieces- the front and the back. Put the back piece (with the sleeves) aside and fold the front piece in half with right sides together.
Taking a t-shirt that fits your toddler, turn it inside out and fold it in half as well. Line up the t-shirt on top of the dress with the necklines matching. You are going to use the t-shirt as a pattern to cut the dress. Carefully cut around the shirt on the top of the shoulder. You are not cutting out sleeves at this point. Make sure you give yourself extra room for a seam allowance. Once you cut around the arm hole shape, STOP! You are going to cut down to the bottom of the dress in an A-line dress shape. I measured approximately how long I would want the dress so I knew where to stop. I had extra fabric left on the bottom.
You should have a front dress shaped piece that looks like this.
Now fold it in half again, right sides together. Fold your back piece in half, right sides together, and place your front dress shaped piece (that’s folded in half) along the back piece, matching up the folds.
Place the front piece slightly further down on the neckline, so the back neckline is higher. Then cut out along the front piece.
Now you have a front piece and a back piece. Next line up the top and hems of your toddler shirt sleeve on the top and hems of the original sleeve. Cut out, making sure to leave a seam allowance.
Now line up that sleeve with the other sleeve so that you have two total.
Now you should have four pieces total.
Place the front and back of the dress together with right sides together and match up the shoulders. Sew them together with whatever seam allowance you chose.
Now open up the dress with the right side up. Place the arm sleeve face down and match up the center and mark with a pin.
Now carefully pin the sleeve to the curve of the arm hole, pinning small sections.
Then sew the sleeve into place. Repeat with your other sleeve and you should have one piece.
Now fold the dress back in half with the right sides together and sew up the bottom of the sleeve and down the side of the dress. Repeat on the other side. You’re almost done!
Fold up the bottom of the dress about an inch making it even all the way around and hem it. If you have a double needle use that (I don’t). Now your dress is done! Yay!
