little miss plaid

The Little Miss got a bad cough and cold the end of last week. As much as I hate it when she is sick I can't help but enjoy the time I get to myself while she takes much longer naps than usual. Like 5 hour naps - I know, awesome, right? (don't think I am a bad mother). So I took advantage of my free time by putting this fabric I found at the thrift store to use. I know I saw a dress made out of a similar plaid somewhere in the vast internet that gave me the inspiration, but it is long lost to me now.

I used a pattern I already had for a simple, plain dress and tweaked it a bit to add in the pleats (see below), then I changed the direction of the grain of the fabric for the hem panel and sleeves. I love how it turned out although the neck is a little too small so she'll grow out of it sooner than I would like her too (for some reason I thought the pattern I was using was a size 2, but it was a size 1).

Fabric - $2 divided by 3 (because I could probably squeeze another two dresses out of the leftovers).
Zipper - already owned
Total Cost = $0.67

That's why I love thrifting.

How to tweak your pattern to add front pleats:
Tape pieces of paper together until you have a piece of paper big enough to trace the front piece of the pattern you are tweaking with room to spare along the fold line. Trace around the outer edges and bottom. Where the fold line is measure out about 2-3"* at the top neckline and 1 1/2"-2 1/2"* at the bottom hem. Then using a ruler connect the lines. Now you have your own pattern piece that you can use over and over again!


*These measurements worked well for my size 1 pattern for 3 box pleats. You'll have to adjust them for different sizes or depending on how many pleats you want to add and how big you want them. I just wanted to share with you the general idea of how to do it! Oh, and I would recommend ironing your pattern first, I know mine is all wrinkled in the picture.