A chambray toddler pinafore dress decorated with woven hand loom motifs

      As my last blog showed I acquired a hand loom at Christmas and swiftly set about making some pretty flower inspired woven designs. However, once they were made I didn’t really have a clue what to do with them so I thought I would incorporate them into a new dress design.

The finished dress

The hand loom

One of my hand woven trims

      Using the same pattern as I had for the Care Bears dress and the dog print dress for Crufts I started to design something that would make the motifs the star of the show. Using some blue chambray leftover from the easy child’s skirt I’d made I set about making a pinafore dress.

I love this plain chambray cotton

      As the chambray is quite sturdy I decided to only half line it, using red cotton that was actually leftover from a set of pillowcases I once chopped up to upcycle my dining room chairs! This left the bottom hem with a raw edge so I chose to sew a strip of the red cotton along it, helping to balance the design visually but also to provide a neat finish to the raw edge.

Lining for the back

Lining for the front and bottom strip visible

The red fabric is leftover from this project!

     To help bring out the pale blue of the smallest flower I used light blue buttons on the shoulders and under the arms. Both the chambray and the lining were a dream to sew so it didn’t take long at all, especially as I’d used the pattern pieces a couple of times already so I’d had plenty of practice.

The buttons enhance the smallest flower

      Finally, I just had to hand sew on the woven trims and that wasn’t hard, although I was conscious of making sure they were firmly attached because toddlers are not known for being gentle on their clothing! I love the finished look, I think it’s really smart and considering the fabric used was all leftover from other projects and the flowers were very quick to make it’s a real statement dress, while being entirely practical.

The dress from the back

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