Bandana Dress

I first began making bandana dresses when my oldest granddaughter was four.  She turned nine in May.  My youngest granddaughter will be four in a month. In between, we have a six year old. Can we slow down the clock, please! The dresses are very easy to make and only involve two items; a knit top (any type of sleeve) and two bandanas. The girls love them as they are very comfortable.  Most girls love to twirl around and the way the bandanas are offset on these dresses provides plenty of twirling activity!

Hobby and fabric stores have a wide variety of bandana options, very easy to find a pattern for the little girl in your life. (Has anyone seen any San Francisco 49ers bandanas? I need some!) The dresses are inexpensive to make, for less than $10 you have a dress that is not only cute but very durable.

Earlier this year I purchased a Silhouette Cameo digital cutting machine. The applique on the top of the dress was my first attempt at using the machine to cut fabric. I have a lot to learn, especially with sizing the various pieces of the applique, but it went pretty well for the first time. I wish I would have used a darker yellow for the bee body but didn't have anything appropriate in my fabric stash.

I bought the pdf pattern from this site. With the pattern is a template for cutting the opening of the bandanas so they will fit the width of the top. Basically, you measure the width of the top, correspond that measurement to the template and cut accordingly. It's a very easy and effective way to get an accurate cut.

After that it's just a matter of arranging the bandanas to get the proper hem effect and sewing the bandana to the top. The dresses take no time to make!