A Simple Little Girls Dress

I made this sweet little dress for my two year old in the run up to our holiday this year. I love making her dresses and this one was just so simple! It’s the same principle as a ‘pillow case dress’ which you may have seen before but I found some really pretty poly-cottons in my nearest fabric shop so didn't want to follow any of those tutorials.

I've tried to write in cm & inches as much as possible, it can get a bit confusing when everything in the UK is sold in cm's to figure out how much material you need to buy, but then when it comes to sewing seams I work in inches. I hope I've managed to keep it simple still!

You Will Need

*        Fabric, 107cm or 42" wide - look to size chart for length
*        Bias binding, 2 metres
*        Elastic 6mm or ¼”

*        Armhole template, see below

*        Don't forget your basic sewing supplies

To figure out how much fabric you need measure from the nape of the child’s neck to wherever you’d like the dress to finish then add 7.5cm or 3 inches for seam allowances. Otherwise follow this chart I made with the help of the size guide on Nancy’s Notions Blog.

Make sure your material is a minimum of 107.5cm or 42” wide, most fabrics are!

Method

Once the fabric is cut to size, fold the material in half and sew to make a tube. Press the seam open to create the centre back of the dress.

Print out the armhole template provided so the top measures 5cm, cut out the size you require and place template at the top of the side folds. Cut out armhole shape leaving no seam allowance.

Now to make the casings for the elastic at the top front and back of the dress. Fold over ¼” and then ½” to create a tube to thread elastic through.  

Cut your required length of elastic in half so you have two equal lengths for the front and back, thread through your casings and stitch at the edges to stop them from coming out.

Cut your bias binding in half then iron it in half lengthways to make it easier to position and sew. Leaving equal lengths at each side pin the bias around your armholes to encase the raw edges. Remember to turn over the ends of your bias so it looks neat if you forget a little knot in the end is quite a cute way of disguising a mistake! Edge stitch the whole length of bias binding to create the straps, these will be tied in bows on the shoulders.

All that’s left to do is hem the bottom of the dress, turn and press ¼” then turn and press a 2” hem and edge stitch on the machine. You can reduce the hem if you like but remember to reduce the seam allowance first. I used a complimentary, contrasting thread…if there is such a thing! But you could hand stitch an invisible hem if this dress is for an occasion or use your sewing machine like I did as this dress if for playing in!

Sorry I don’t have step by step pictures but it is so simple all being well you won’t need them! 

I hope you enjoy having a go and maybe you get to try adding some trimmings, appliqué or pockets!

Elderflower Champagne

I wasn’t intending to post makes such as this but we made elderflower champagne for our wedding last year to use as the toast drink, originally just to save money on Champagne or Cava, it ended up being one of my favourite parts to the day and a lot of our guests agreed! So this is for all our lovely friends & family who have asked for the recipe.

I had planned to serve it in beautiful glass bottles at the tables but due to how fizzy it ended up we served it in the 2ltr plastic bottles we made it in, with some luggage labels tied on with twine to decorate. It ended up being perfect and just added to the beautiful, homemade feel of our day.

We used this recipe, originally found on goodfood.co.uk (which I’m obsessed with), which had been taken from River Cottage Spring book, along with a great deal and help from my now mother-in-law.

Ingredients:

* 4 litres hot water

* 700g sugar

* Juice and zest of four lemons

* 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

* About 15 elderflower heads, in full bloom

* A pinch of dried yeast

Method

Put the hot water and sugar into a large container (a spotlessly clean bucket is good) and stir until the sugar dissolves, then top up with cold water so you have 6 litres of liquid in total.

Add the lemon juice and zest, the vinegar and the flower heads and stir gently.

Cover with clean muslin and leave to ferment in a cool, airy place for a couple of days. Take a look at the brew at this point, and if it’s not becoming a little foamy and obviously beginning to ferment, add a pinch of yeast.

Leave the mixture to ferment, again covered with muslin, for a further four days. Strain the liquid through a sieve lined with muslin and decant into sterilised strong glass bottles with champagne stoppers (available from home-brewing suppliers) or Grolsch-style stoppers, or sterilized screw-top plastic bottles (a good deal of pressure can build up inside as the fermenting brew produces carbon dioxide, so strong bottles and seals are essential)

Seal and leave to ferment in the bottles for at least a week before serving, chilled. The champagne should keep in the bottles for several months. Store in a cool, dry place.

Tips

When you pick the elderflower heads be really gentle and try to keep as much pollen on as possible as this helps the fermentation process.

We chose to use champagne yeast to make sure the process worked, it may be a little more expensive but was so worth it.

As we picked the elderflowers in early June but didn’t need the champagne until September we transferred the mixture into a demi-jon for a few weeks to help the process before transferring into our 2ltr plastic bottles.

We used plastic screw top bottles as heard quite a few stories of glass bottles exploding and didn’t want to be redecorating just before a wedding.

Luckily for us my mother-in-law enjoyed a few tasting sessions in the lead up to W-Day. She added a spoonful of sugar to each bottle a few weeks before the elderflower wine was to be served as it begins to get a bit dry after a couple of months. It ended up just perfect!

Elderflowers are coming into bloom NOW so have a go too!

Photograps by Beki Young Photography

A start!

I have always wanted to write a blog but never known what about. I am a mummy who loves to design, create, sew and make all sorts of things for my little girl and around the home.

Currently a family of 1 child, soon to be 2, we are moving to a bigger house in the same village. We’ve been in our current house nearly 3 years and didn’t have two penny’s to scrape together when we moved in. Luckily our generous family’s gave us lots of hand me downs and we bought quite a bit of second hand furniture. Deep down we love this house as it was our first family home, our little girl was born in the bedroom and we have made a lot of happy memories here in the short time we have inhabited it. However, our new house is going to be our new project, with great help from my amazing parents, we can move somewhere bigger and plan to spend a lot more time, effort and love decorating and furnishing it.

I love handmade and have always been creative especially now I have children to do it for and with. I get a lot of inspiration from other blogs but especially Pinterest.  I’m hoping to share all the things I do and make with you on this blog as well as share the inspiration I find.

Hope you enjoy reading & get to join in.

Emme x

Photograph by Beki Young Photography