Knit Summer Dresses for my Girls

It’s begun.  Summer temperatures have arrived, and with it, the requests for summer clothes.  For my younger girls, this means knit fabric, light colors, and breezy silhouettes.  Two knit summer dresses coming right up!  

One of Annie’s favorite dresses from last summer is the Ila Dress I sewed for her from french terry fabric.  She still wears it, although it’s about 6 inches shorter than when I sewed it.  Not my laundry skills, her growing skills!

For these two dresses I got to use the new summer fabrics from Raspberry Creek Fabrics.  These fabrics shout “sum, sum, summertime!”  There’s lemonade, fruit, dots, waves and sea creatures.

For the main fabric I used textured sand stripe jersey knit fabric for these knit summer dresses.

As with all CLUB fabric from Raspberry Creek Fabrics, this fabric is super soft, does not pill, and has great stretch and recovery.  This sand stripe looks textured, and just begs for a lemonade stand operation, don’t you think?

The Ila Dress by Coffee and Thread does not call for knit fabric, so I made the same modifications as last time.  It really makes it quite a fast sewing project.

For Annie, I added a ruffle to the bottom of the sleeves and hem.  This gives her added length (due to that growing-like-a-weed condition!) and makes it fun.  I used mustard jersey knit fabric from Raspberry Creek Fabrics for the ruffles and center panel.  

Baby also got a knit Ila dress.  I have to admit, I sewed her a size too big, but thankfully, she’ll grow into it.  Perhaps it’ll last longer than a month that way!  She seemed to notice that her and Annie were matching and got a great kick out of posing with Annie for these photos!

Her contrast center panel and neck yoke are from bright fuchsia jersey knit fabric from Raspberry Creek Fabrics.  This color really brings out the pink tones in her cheeks and lips, and is so precious, if I do say so myself!

One of Annie’s favorite things about this dress are the hidden pockets.  Baby ignored hers until shown how she could put treasures into them, and then wouldn’t stop putting things in!  

Now I can check a few knit summer dresses off that summer sewing list.  Except that Annie caught sight of the other summer fabric I got from Raspberry Creek Fabrics and put in her order for a summer maxi skirt.  Stay tuned on that…