Summer Jumper DIY

I was going through my fabric stash this week and decided it had been far too long since I made a little something.  I grabbed the rest of the denim I used for Smokey's pants and decided a jumper would be the perfect project for the day.

I started with these three pieces.  A square for the body, a long strip for the waist, and a longer, wider piece of fabric for the skirt.  In all, the measurements were: body:  7"x6";  waist:  23"x4";  skirt: 9 1/2"x45".  Since I was just winging it and not using a pattern, I just measured Poesy to get the right numbers.

I ironed all of the edges where I would be hemming.  This picture doesn't show it, but most of the edges are ironed and folded under twice.  Go ahead and hem all of your edges, but don't hem the waistband quite yet.

Tuck the unhemmed edge of the skirt piece inside the waistband and hem. Make sure to either pin it or gather as you go.  When you are finished you should end up with pieces that look like this:

Attach the top piece the middle section of the skirt.  After this step, I stitched the back of the skirt closed, but did not run the stitch all the way up.  That way, I could add a hook-n-eye closure at the waist and not have to worry about the dress getting stuck on her diaper booty as I try to put it on.

You can add straps anyway you please.  I stitched mine in place instead of using buttons because buttons are easy for her small fingers to undo and SOMEONE still thinks it's funny to strip down to her diaper in public places.  ;)

All in all, this project took me somewhere between 2 & 3 hours.  There were some breaks in there because, you know, kid stuff.  I really like projects that you can complete in an afternoon.  They make you feel so... accomplished.  Plus, Poesy is pretty much the BEST person to make anything for because her response is always something like: "Thank you, thank you!  Oooohhhh, I love it!  You are so nice to me!  I love it, I love it, I love it!"