leilia & ben "Sweet Little Dress for Babies"

Where does your inspiration for sewing start?  Mine usually begins while I'm surfing the web and happen to stumble upon (I mean literally, I don't use the "stumbleupon" site) a cute or interesting picture of something I know that I can sew!  My recent inspiration began when I came upon this picture on Pinterest:

Isn't that an absolutely adorable dress?  

I saw this dress and knew that it would probably be impossible to find a pattern that was exactly like it (that also happened to be cheap or preferably free).  I decided to begin my search anyways.  A few minutes later, lo and behold I found exactly what I was looking for at leila & ben: Handmade for Modern Babies: the "Sweet Little Dress for babies!"

Again, how adorable is that dress?
Not to mention, one of my good friends was having a baby shower soon!

I quickly downloaded the pattern (which was only $6, woo-hoo), and proceeded to print it out and piece it together.  The picture-guided instructions that came with the pattern were great, and it was easy to cut everything out and sew it together.  I encountered one little problem though: I forgot to unfold the ironed creases before I attached the sleeves to the main body piece (the instructions show  this in pictures 4 and 5, but doesn't mention it in the directions until step 3e)!  When I started to string the elastic through the casing I realized what I did wrong, because I couldn't get the elastic all the way around.  Rookie mistake...I know  =/

There I sat looking at my unfinished dress.  I started brainstorming all the ways I could get around ripping the seam (I HATE ripping seams).  Then I stopped, held up the dress and thought to myself: sleeve - elastic = FLUTTER SLEEVES!  Yes, I decide to leave out the elastic on the outer part of the sleeve in order to create flutter sleeves (although there was no way getting around ripping the seams that were part of the neckline...boo).

I liked it so much that I purposely made the second dress the same way, but I altered the dress to make it shorter (dress for a newborn that could transition into a top for a crawling baby).  The fabric used for this dress was leftover from the diaper stacker I made for my friend's shower (look for that post soon).

I'm also including pictures from the construction of the dresses in order to help clarify the instructions for the pattern for those who decide to purchase it!  I'm a visual learner and the way I see it, the more pictures I have the better chance I'll have at getting it right the first time!

This is the sleeve that is laying on top of the main body piece.

I used the "02" reinforcement stitch on the seams between the sleeves and the main body piece because that's an area that might experience more tugging.

***Here is where I messed up!  Make sure you unfold the sleeves before attaching them to the main body piece!

After you attach both sleeves, this is what you should end up with.

After attaching the sleeves, here I sewed from the arm hole to the hemline on both sides and finished the seams with a narrowed zig-zag stitch.

I hope this helps!  Feel free to ask questions if you have any!