Snowman Dress

Recently I had the opportunity to guest post over at Sugar Bee Crafts. There I shared the tutorial for Abby's Snowman Birthday Dress. Today I'm sharing it with you all.



 I'm excited to share with you the snowman dress I made for my youngest daughter's 3rd birthday party. It's super simple and adorable which makes it a win in my book. Let's get started...

What you need:

 - White shirt in your little one's size. Make sure you pre-wash it to prevent shrinking
 - iron-on interfacing
 - White fabric (I used Cozy Fleece)
 - Plaid coordinating fabric
 - Buttons to make up your 'snowman'
 - Needle and coordinating threads

I found these Snowman Buttons in a pack at Joann and used a 40% coupon to nab them for a deal. You could use individual buttons or fleece to make up the same design. Use what you have on hand.



















To start, grab you flannel and cut out or piece together a piece that is 8 inches wide and long enough to fit around your little one and tie. My Abby wears about a 4 so mine was 8" x 38". My plaid was a small scrap so I had to sew 2 pieces together.

Next, fold your plaid hot dog style, yeah I went there :) and sew along the long edge. Turn it right side out and press it flat. Next tuck each end in and topstitch arond the entire outside to finish it.

Your finished sash will now look like this.

Now for the dress part. Start with your shirt inside out. Iron on your interfacing where you will be sewing on your buttons. I make a black box to show you where. White on white is hard to see.

Now turn your shirt back to the right side and position your snowman buttons to create a face. I just used a pencil to lightly mark in the button holes so I wouldn't lose by place. Next you just grab your coordinating threads and sew on your face.

**If you have a little guy you could stop at this step and have a cute snowman shirt instead of a dress. **

Now you'll want to measure the width or your shirt. You will need this number later for the skirt portion. You will also want to mark off where to cut to make your bodice.

To make the skirt part you will want it to be 3 times as long as your shirt is around. My shirt was 10.5" accross the front (21" total) so my width was 63" wide. Abby requested her skirt be long and twirly so I cut it about 22" long.

Start by sewing up the short sides of your skirt to create a tube. You will want to gather the skirt width to match up with the bottom edge of the shirt. If you've never gathered before it's really easy. Sew a long stitch accross the top and then pull the bobbin thread to gather.

Next put the shirt inside the skirt with right sides together and edges lined up and sew along the edge. You may want to serge your finished edge, but that step is not necessary because knits and fleece don't really fray.





Turn your dress right side out and you are pretty much set. You can top stitch the waist if you want and hem the bottom. I tried to hem Abby's but she insisted that I leave it be. It's her birthday not mine.

She wasn't really in the mood for smiling because she was in a really silly mood but here it is on my little lady. Is it just me or does she look way to big to be turning 3?