My first dress!!!

We have decided to take Jillian to Disney World in November (shhh... don't tell her, we are hoping to surprise her!) and I've been thinking about outfits for her to wear to the parks (yes, I'm THAT mom).  I've seen TONS of cute custom dresses that I LOVE but there is NO WAY I am going to pay that much! I know I can make some REALLY cute stuff with my embroidery machine but I want to make some cute dresses and pants to embroider on.  I've been wanting to try my hand at dress making for awhile so I figured I would start trying to make her something.  I didn't want to invest too much money into my first test dress so I just bought some fabric that was on sale at Hancock Fabric that I thought was cute. 

I read several different craft blogs and one of my favorites is From An Igloo.  Christine has several people that advertise and do giveaways on her blog and one of them is Little Lizard King Sewing Patterns.  Since Christine recommends them I decided to try their Apron Knot Dress pattern.  I've never sewn from a pattern and I've only done a small amount of sewing in general.  Since I have NO CLUE how to follow a regular pattern I really liked that Little Lizard King walked me step-by-step through making the dress.  The only thing to print out was a template that I used to cut the right size arm hole, everything else was just rectangles in different sizes! 

I cut out all my pattern parts last night and it only took me about 20 minutes, it would have taken a LOT less time if I would have had a rotary mat and ruler.  Hopefully I will get one soon!  I started sewing the dress this morning and from start to finish it only took me 3 hours (and I was taking care of Jillian the whole time), I figure the next time it won't even take me that long!

I'm pretty excited with how well it turned out and I'm sure my next one will be even better!  Wouldn't this be adorable with the dress light blue, a white "apron" front with some type of Cinderella appliques on the front of the apron?  Or no apron on the front and piece different fabrics together for the skirt?  I am looking forward to the different possibilities!